Full video: Luxon, Willis speak after OCR cut by Reserve Bank
Buyers accessing the Kāinga Ora-administered First Home Loan will pay a higher fee from July 1.
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The Spinoff
24-06-2025
- The Spinoff
‘Short-term pain' and long-term fallout as Kāinga Ora scraps thousands of state homes
Nearly 3500 planned homes have been cut from the pipeline in a sweeping overhaul aimed at restoring the agency's finances, writes Catherine McGregor in today's extract from The Bulletin. Thousands of state homes scrapped If you missed the news of massive cuts to the state house building programme, that's understandable – it came on Thursday, just as the country was powering down for the Matariki weekend. As the Herald's Lane Nichols reports, Kāinga Ora is cancelling 212 planned housing projects which would have delivered almost 3500 state homes, with 20% of the agency's vacant land holdings to be put up for sale. The rest will be land banked for 'possible future development', Kāinga Ora chief executive Matt Crockett said. The decision means the agency will need to write down between $190 and $220 million in sunk costs for scoping and planning work. Both Crockett and housing minister Chris Bishop said the cancellations were a tough call, but necessary to restore fiscal discipline to the troubled agency. 'We need to bite the bullet on this' said Crockett. 'There is often some short-term pain that comes with the resetting of past decisions, but it needs to be done.' Impact across the regions The cancellations are widespread but will hit hardest in Auckland, Palmerston North, Christchurch and Whangārei. In Auckland, Onehunga lost 259 new homes across multiple developments, while a $100 million, 16-storey tower in central Manukau has been shelved. Over in Mt Wellington, the Rowlands Ave redevelopment – planned to replace 60 demolished units with 180 new homes – has also been abandoned. In Palmerston North, 245 homes across nine projects have been cut, and in Whangārei, 322 new builds have been cancelled. A planned 108-home village in the Christchurch suburb of Sockburn has also been scrapped. Auckland councillor Josephine Bartley, who worked with residents in Jordan Ave and Rowlands Ave before they were relocated, tells Newsroom's Jonathan Milne many families were promised the right to return. 'I just don't understand it,' she said. 'We have so many people still on the Public Housing Register who need homes. Kāinga Ora's role should be about building homes – what else are they here for?' The big reset The cancellations form part of a wider turnaround plan for Kāinga Ora, which followed a review by former prime minister Sir Bill English amid cost blowouts and spiralling debt. In February, Bishop unveiled details of a 'reset' to refocus the agency on its core role as a landlord, not a developer. The plan also includes shedding hundreds of jobs and offloading high-value properties in affluent suburbs like Remuera. Bishop said the project cancellations and land sales are designed to free up funds to build homes in places where they are most needed. 'Meanwhile, over the next two years, Kāinga Ora is delivering over 2000 additional social homes as well as a big refit programme to bring older social homes up to scratch.' The government has also funded 2,000 homes through strategic partnerships with Community Housing Providers, 400 affordable rentals, and has established a 'housing flexible fund' which will enable 'up to 650-900 more social homes and affordable rentals', he added. The cost to communities As Milne writes in his excellent piece in Newsroom, the topline figures tell only a fraction of the story. Over the past seven years, around 5000 Kāinga Ora homes have been demolished – often with ambitious rebuild plans that never materialised. 'Amid the politics and policy and media discussions of where Kāinga Ora's money has all gone, few are asking where the people have gone,' Milne writes. In Onehunga, for example, where 62 state homes were flattened, the promised high-rise replacements were designed – twice – before being scrapped altogether. 'All these thousands of people moved out to make way for the promise of the new – but it's proved to be a hollow promise.' Those left behind are often confronted by daily reminders of what could have been. 'The last thing you want to see in your communities is big, massive, empty housing lots,' councillor Josephine Bartley said. 'It does something to the people that still live round there, the people that see that emptiness every day.'
NZ Herald
24-06-2025
- NZ Herald
Kāinga Ora wool carpet contract a win for increased sustainability
The awarding of a contract to install wool carpets in Kāinga Ora homes will be welcome news for several sectors. Kāinga Ora has confirmed a $2 million contract for the supply of wool carpet in some of its new state housing builds and renovations has gone to New Zealand-owned
RNZ News
18-06-2025
- RNZ News
Kāinga Ora halts hundreds of housing developments, sells vacant land
Kāinga Ora CEO Matt Crockett (right) and Housing Minister Chris Bishop. Photo: RNZ/ Marika Khabazi State housing provider Kāinga Ora is halting hundreds of housing developments which would have delivered nearly 3500 homes, and selling a fifth of its vacant land. The agency's chief executive Matt Crockett said on Thursday the "critical step" in its reset plan would see it write down up to $220 million. Housing Minister Chris Bishop ordered Kāinga Ora to deliver a turnaround plan that would ensure financial sustainability . The agency's plan will see it refocus as a landlord, rather than a developer, and the number of houses it owned would stabilise from 2026. Crockett said Kāinga Ora reviewed more than 460 social housing projects to ensure it was getting the best value for money and supplying houses in the areas of greatest need. It was decided 212 projects that would have delivered 3479 homes would not proceed because they did not stack up financially, or were in the wrong locations. It would press on with 254 projects, building more than 1800 new homes. Kāinga Ora would also sell about a fifth - 36 hectares - of vacant land because it was no longer needed. The proceeds would be put towards new housing or debt, and the agency would hold on to the remaining land for possible future development. "These reviews were essential to ensuring we only progress new housing projects that make commercial sense and that we sell land which is surplus to our requirements so we can get on a more financially sustainable footing,'' Crockett said. "Our reviews have highlighted an abnormally high number of projects and land holdings that no longer make sense for Kāinga Ora if we want to get ourselves in a better financial position." Crockett said the exact amount being written down would not be known until the end of year accounts are audited. But it included $150 to $180 million of capital that was spent on housing projects that will not go ahead as originally planned, and $40 million for land that has fallen in value since Kāinga Ora purchased it. Kāinga Ora could "largely absorb" the unbudgeted write-downs through operating efficiencies, a disciplined approach to spending, and reduced staff numbers, Crockett said. The agency last month slashed 620 jobs , of which nearly 200 were vacant. It would still exceed the annual budget for write-downs, Crockett said. "We need to bite the bullet on this," Crockett said. "There is often some short-term pain that comes with the resetting of past decisions, but it needs to be done." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
