Kāinga Ora is the country’s largest social housing landlord, with over 72,000 properties providing homes to about 185,000 New Zealanders.

We are increasing social housing in areas where more homes are needed and also renewing our existing homes to ensure they are suitable for the people who live in them.

We are grounded in, and work alongside, our communities. Each part of the country is different, and we use local approaches to address local issues.

Our Community Engagement teams work alongside our Housing Delivery teams to ensure communities are kept informed about what is happening in their neighbourhoods, particularly around our build programme, such as when a site is being redeveloped.

When it comes to our tenants, a dedicated placements team works to match people and whānau into the home and community that best meets their needs. Once tenants have moved into their new home, one of our Housing Support Managers supports them to live well in their Kāinga Ora home and community.

Our maintenance team carries out maintenance work on Kāinga Ora homes, with the aim of keeping our homes warm, dry, healthy and safe.

For further information about Kāinga Ora, visit our main website.

Our Social Pinpoint pages and interactive maps aim to give the community an overview of our housing projects in the area and what stage each development is at. Once a development is completed, it is removed from the map to ensure privacy for the whānau who will live there.

Some of the proposed developments on the maps are in the early planning stages, so plans can change as we undertake due diligence and progress through the planning and consenting processes, and some projects may not proceed. For these reasons, the interactive maps are not able to be used as data sources on numbers of homes or be considered definitive and confirmed plans – they are intended to give an overview of possible development options.

When someone applies for social housing, the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) carries out an assessment to determine their eligibility. If the applicant is eligible, they’re placed on the housing register, which MSD manages.

Kāinga Ora then matches eligible applicants from the housing register with a suitable home. We understand the importance of good placement, and work hard to match people and whānau into the right home and community to meet their needs. To help achieve this, our placements team have pre-housing conversations with applicants to understand their needs, supports and existing connections to the community.

Find out more about how to apply for social housing Renting a home :: Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities

After matching people with a home, we help our tenants make essential connections within their communities and connect them with support services when needed.

Every tenant living in a Kāinga Ora home has a Housing Support Manager to support them to live well in their home. This includes helping them to settle into their home and community and ensuring the home is fit-for-purpose.

Regular maintenance work and inspections are undertaken to keep the homes warm, dry, healthy and safe.

We're committed to being a good landlord. Part of this means getting the right balance between our responsibilities to our tenants and ensuring the quiet enjoyment of others in the community. When disruptive behaviour occurs, we act quickly to get a full picture of what has happened. Our focus is on being fair but firm by:

• Working to understand what is driving the behaviour and referring tenants to specialist social and health services to address underlying issues if required.
• Using tools under Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) where we find a tenant has breached their responsibilities as a deterrent for disruptive behaviour.
• Ending tenancies when we need to, and not offering the tenant another home.

Find out more about our approach to disruptive behaviour: Our approach to disruptive behaviour :: Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities

Kāinga Ora builds additional social homes based on the Government direction, which tells us how many houses are needed and where they are needed. We also renew our existing homes, to make sure we have homes in the right locations and our homes are suitable for the people that need them. We do this through:

• removing old Kāinga Ora houses and redeveloping on the land;
• working with construction firms to build new houses;
• buying completed homes from private developers.

Find out more about our approach to delivering social housing, visit Our approach to delivering social housing :: Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities

We aim to inform residents as soon as we can about our upcoming developments as we acknowledge that people want to know what’s happening in their neighbourhoods.

How and when we engage with communities depends on the scale and size of a development and whether we will oversee the construction from the beginning, or are purchasing buildings from developers.

Visit our interactive maps for the most up-to-date information about our proposed developments.

Yes, this is one of the ways Kāinga Ora helps meet the need for more social housing. We refer to these purchases as acquisitions.

When we buy new builds, the developer generally manages all aspects of the construction process and Kāinga Ora buys the homes upon completion. Developers can present potential development sites to Kāinga Ora at any stage of the development cycle. We assess the offered project and, if it’s suitable, begin negotiations with the developer. This process can take time, as we need to consider various aspects of the proposed development, including the design and cost.

As with any contract negotiation, there are privacy issues and commercial sensitivities, and not all negotiations result in Kāinga Ora entering a contract with a developer. This is why we generally need to make sure the contract is officially approved, and the conditions of the sale and purchase agreement are met, before we can inform the community about the new development coming to their neighbourhood.

When Kāinga Ora is redeveloping homes on existing land or working with a developer, we ensure the homes to be built are of a high standard, using designs that complement both the environment and meet the needs of our tenants and communities.

Here are some examples of the housing styles and sizes we deliver.

Many factors influence house prices including interest rates, building standards, market trends and wider economic conditions.

Long term, property values have increased steadily over time in locations where Kāinga Ora builds and maintains homes, as they have throughout most of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Kāinga Ora proactively works to ensure the homes to be built are of a high standard, using designs which complement both the environment and meet the needs of our customers and communities.

We are focussing on renewing our existing homes, to make sure we have homes in the right locations and our homes are suitable for the people that need them. We renew our homes through:

• renovating them through our retrofit programme, adding at least 50 years to their life;
• removing homes and redeveloping on the same land;
• selling a house and the land and replacing it with a new warm, dry home elsewhere.

Money from sales will be used to build new, fit-for-purpose homes that are the right size and in the right locations to match the changing needs of the people who live in them, both now and in the future. We’re not reducing the number of Kāinga Ora homes - for each existing Kāinga Ora home sold, a newly built home is delivered elsewhere.

Selling social homes or land isn’t new – we continually assess our housing stock and sell where we need to. We’re just doing it on a larger scale at the moment, with more of a focus on renewing our homes

Find out more about our national divestment programme on our website: Selling Kāinga Ora properties :: Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities

There are many unknowns when we begin investigating whether a site is suitable for development, so the timeframes for when construction may begin or end can vary significantly.

We work through a number of stages to understand whether a site is suitable for redevelopment. The stages include:

Feasibility – This is high level, early-stage assessment of information to help determine if a site could be suitable for redevelopment.

• At this stage we create a yield study. It is a very simple image that gives an idea of what might be able to be built on site.
• The local teams provide information about the type and size of housing that is needed in the area and information about amenities and services.

Detailed Site Investigations – If it’s agreed that we want to redevelop the site we start more detailed investigations.

• Investigations might include: geotechnical testing, stormwater, wastewater and road engineering, traffic studies, planning assessments.
• These tests help us to understand the suitability of the land for development and gives information to estimate costs to build, and will flag any issues with infrastructure or planning rules. This information is used to create a more detailed design that will be suitable for the site.
• At this stage, we often meet with the local council in what is called a “Pre-Application meeting.” The purpose of this meeting is for key council staff to provide feedback on the high-level plans and flag any issues with the design that we would need to address.

Business Case – All of the information gathered in the investigations is used to develop a business case for the proposed project.

• This document sets out exactly how much the redevelopment is likely to cost.
• At the same time, we may be developing plans ready to lodge for resource consent and building consent.
• The business case must be signed off before we can confidently say we will go ahead with a project.
• The timing of the business case and consenting plans being finalised and lodged can be different for every project.
• Consenting is determined by local councils, they review the resource consent and assess against their planning rules and determine the level of consultation, if any, required for a development.

Procurement – When the business case is signed off and consents are approved, we will go out to tender for contractors to undertake the redevelopment works on site, including removal of the existing buildings and any site preparation work.

Most new housing developments, whether initiated by us or a private developer, need to go through a resource consent process. We follow the same process as any other individual or company who is looking to develop.

The resource consent process is run by the local council in the area. It takes into account factors such as whether there is enough infrastructure and services to support the proposed new development and how it aligns with the District Plan.

It is the Council that decides whether there is a need for the public to be notified of the consent application.

We are mindful of the impact the developments might have on your community and we will ensure that any disruptions from construction works, such as noise and dust, are kept to a minimum. Our contractors will be doing all they can to limit this and will clean up the area once the work is completed.

Health and safety are important to us, and we will ensure that our contractors follow our health and safety processes and procedures. For this reason, public access to the site is not permitted once construction begins.

As we are usually working in established areas, we carefully balance the need to deliver new housing with preserving the existing physical make-up of the neighbourhood.

We make a conscious effort to plant more trees than we remove.

If retaining trees: At our redevelopment sites where we have established trees, one of the first things we do in the plan and design process is get professional advice or an arborist’s assessment because we want to keep trees if they are in good health. We know larger or mature trees provide many crucial environmental benefits, including contributing to biodiversity and air quality, reducing the impact of climate change and mitigating storm water runoff. It is for those reasons that we try to retain established trees where possible.

If removing trees: Wherever possible we try to retain established trees and have a new dedicated policy providing guidance on how we manage mature trees. We would consider removing a tree in the following circumstances:

• the tree is diseased
• it is damaging the property or infrastructure
• it is causing health and safety issues for residents
• if it is not possible to design new builds around existing trees

You can provide feedback or make a complaint by contacting 0800 801 601 or filling in the online enquiries and feedback form.

There are some situations where it’s best to get in touch with another agency to help, before reaching out to Kāinga Ora. This includes:

• Immediate Danger - If you think someone is in immediate or physical danger, call police immediately on 111.
• Illegal Activity - If you’re concerned about potential illegal activity, report it to the Police by calling 105.
• Noise - If you’re having problems with noise, get in touch with the noise control office at your local Council. Visit their website for information about noise control and their key contacts.
• Dogs - If you’re having problems with dogs, call Animal Control at your local Council. Visit their website for information about dog control and their key contacts.
• Animal Welfare - If you’re concerned about animal welfare or an abandoned pet, get in touch with the nearest SPCA. Key contacts can be found on the SPCA website.

Once you’ve reported your concern to one of these organisations, please get in touch with us to let us know what’s going and that you’ve connected with other authorities. This means we can not only look into your concerns, but reach out to the right agency to get more information if needed. Visit our website to find out more.