Kāinga Ora to build homes and create thriving communities

A new Crown agency to transform housing and urban development throughout New Zealand has been established after the Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities Bill passed its final reading in Parliament this afternoon.

Minister of Urban Development Phil Twyford says Kāinga Ora will have two key roles: being a world-class public housing landlord and working in partnership to enable, facilitate and build urban development projects of all sizes.

“The new agency will be the Government’s lead developer for urban development. It brings together Housing New Zealand and its development subsidiary HLC, and the KiwiBuild Unit, to create a one stop shop that will build thriving communities with a diverse mix of public, affordable and market housing.

“Kāinga Ora is a new approach. It will end the duplication, splitting of key roles, fragmented decision-making and limited coordination that occurred over recent years because the Government’s comprehensive house building programmes was spread across multiple agencies.

“It will have a strong social mandate and will not be required to return a surplus to the Government. It will also recognise the importance of environmental, cultural and heritage values in urban development.

“Once it becomes operational on October 1, Kāinga Ora will work closely with developers, iwi, local and central government and non-profit organisations to facilitate the development of urban environments where people want to live, work and play.

“Kāinga Ora is set up so it can work alongside others in a wide variety of ways – enabling and complementing, rather than competing with, the private sector. This will include working with the development sector on large scale urban development projects,” Phil Twyford said.

A companion Bill will be introduced later in the year to give Kāinga Ora the ability to undertake specified development projects.

“These are essential and complex projects that would struggle to progress under standard development processes. Kāinga Ora will have a tool-box of powers to help housing and urban development be built at scale and pace,” Phil Twyford said.