Going for Housing Growth programme

The Going for Housing Growth programme (GfHG) is part of the Government’s broader plan to tackle New Zealand’s ongoing housing shortage.

GfHG is about enabling more homes to be built

GfHG is structured around three pillars that make system changes to address the underlying causes of the housing supply shortage. These are: 

  1. Freeing up land for urban development, including removing unnecessary planning barriers
  2. Improving infrastructure funding and financing to support urban growth
  3. Providing incentives for communities and councils to support growth.

Together, these three pillars have an objective of: improving housing affordability by significantly increasing the supply of developable land for housing, both inside and at the edge of our urban areas.

We work alongside other agencies to deliver the pillars

GfHG is a large programme of work. HUD works with other agencies including:

  • the Ministry for the Environment
  • Department of Internal Affairs
  • the Treasury
  • Infrastructure Commission
  • Ministry of Transport and others as needed.

Pillar 1: Freeing up land for urban development

In July 2024 the Government announced decisions requiring councils to free up land for housing. In March 2025, the Government announced an intention for these proposals to be implemented through Phase 3 of the Resource Management reforms. 

Introducing Housing Growth Targets

  • New Housing Growth Targets introduced for Tier 1 and 2 councils, requiring them to enable 30 years of feasible housing capacity in their district plans, using ‘high’ population growth projections.
  • New requirement that 'price indicators' (such as the difference in the price between land zoned for rural and urban use) do not deteriorate over time.
  • New central government tools to monitor council compliance and a mandate to take action where there is unjustified non-compliance. 

Enabling greenfield growth

  • Councils prohibited from imposing rural-urban boundary lines in planning documents (but can still have rurally zoned land).
  • Government investigating options to require councils to plan for 50 years of growth as part of spatial planning and be more responsive to private plan changes. 

Intensification in the right places

  • Tier 1 councils must enable appropriate levels of density across their urban areas, having regard to demand and access to different services.
  • Tier 1 councils must deliver housing intensification along 'strategic transport corridors' (for example, key bus routes).
  • Tier 1 councils must directly offset any housing capacity lost due to reasons such as ‘special character’ elsewhere. 

Mixed-use development

  • Tier 1 and 2 councils must enable a greater mix of uses (such as allowing cafes and retail close to where people live) across their urban environments.
  • Industrial-type activities can still be kept away from housing.

Balconies and floor area requirements

  • Standardised zones won’t include minimum floor area or balcony requirements.
  • Developers can still choose to provide balconies and size dwellings in line with demand from buyers.

Making the Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS) optional 

  • The Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill contains provisions making the MDRS optional for councils. The Select Committee is currently considering submissions on the Bill and will report back to Parliament later this year.

Consultation on how these proposals could be implemented through the new resource management system will commence in mid-2025 

  • Further information about Pillar 1

    Policy 

    Current requirements 

    Key changes 

    Housing Growth Targets 

    Currently, the National Policy Statement - Urban Development (NPS-UD) requires councils to plan for 30 years of housing demand.

    Capacity is considered ‘plan-enabled’ if:

    • in the short term (0 to 3 years), it’s on land that’s zoned for housing in an operative district plan
    • in the medium term (3 to 10 years), either the above applies or it’s on land that’s zoned for housing in a proposed district plan
    • in the long term (10 to 30 years), either the above applies or it’s on land identified by the local authority for use in a future development strategy or equivalent. 

     

    Development capacity must also be infrastructure ready.

    Development capacity is infrastructure-ready if:

    • in the short term (0 to 3 years), there’s adequate existing infrastructure to support land development for housing 
    • in the medium term (3 to 10 years), either the above applies or funding for adequate infrastructure to support land development for housing is identified in a long-term plan
    • in the long term (10 to 30 years), either the above applies or infrastructure to support land development for housing is identified in a council’s infrastructure strategy. 

    Tier 1 and 2 councils will need to zone for at least 30 years of housing demand, rather than a minimum of 3 years. 

    A wider range of funding sources can be used to meet medium-term infrastructure requirements including:

    • a levy under the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Act 2020
    • a development agreement, through central government funding streams.

    New prescriptive rules and guidance will be set for how councils calculate how much housing capacity they need, for example, requiring councils to use ‘high’ demand projections.

    New requirements that price indicators, such as urban fringe land price differentials, don’t deteriorate and ideally improve over time. 

    Enabling greenfield growth 

    Tier 1 and 2 councils must prepare future development strategies. These are required to identify:

    • locations where growth can happen in the future
    • the infrastructure required to service that growth
    • any constraints on development, over a 30-year time period.

    Councils are required to be responsive to private plan change proposals that would provide significant development capacity would contribute to a well-functioning urban environment. 

    Ministry officials are exploring options to improve spatial planning processes, such as requiring councils to plan for growth over a 50 year, rather than 30-year time period.

    Officials are also looking at strengthening the requirements for councils to be responsive to unanticipated or out of sequence development, to better support developers to progress private plan changes.

    Councils won’t be able to impose a rural-urban boundary line or equivalent in a plan, they can still have rurally zoned land. 

    Intensification in the right places 

    Tier 1 councils are required to allow:

    • in city centre zones: building heights and density to realise as much development capacity as possible
    • in metropolitan centre zones, and within a walkable catchment of city and metropolitan centre zones and existing and planned rapid transit stops, building heights of at least six storeys
    • within and adjacent to neighbourhood, local and town centre zones, building heights and density in line with the level of commercial activity and community services.

    Councils determine the size of walkable catchment areas that trigger intensification requirements.

    Tier 2 councils are required to allow heights and housing densities in line with the level of accessibility of services or demand for housing. 

    Tier 1 councils will be required to allow heights and housing densities across their urban areas in line with the level of accessibility of services or demand for housing, rather than just in and around neighbourhood, local and town centres.

    Tier 1 councils must identify ‘strategic transport corridors’, for example, key bus routes and upzone around these, not just around rapid transit, for example, train stations as at present.

    Government will simplify the definition of rapid transit.

    Government will set minimum catchment sizes rather than leaving this to council discretion.

    Tier 1 councils will be required to offset the loss of housing capacity resulting from the use of an ‘unlisted qualifying matter’, such as defining an area as having special character by a direct and corresponding increase in housing capacity elsewhere.

    There will be stronger evidentiary requirements on decision-makers seeking to apply qualifying matters. 

    Tier 2 requirements remain the same. 

    Mixed-use development 

    No specific direction on mixed-use. 

    Councils will be required to enable a greater mix of uses, such as allowing cafes and retail close to where people live across their urban environments as part of the standardised zones that will be developed. 

      

    Minimum floor area and balcony requirements 

    No specific direction on minimum floor area and balcony requirements.   

    Standardised zones will not include minimum floor area or balcony requirements.

    Making the medium density residential standards optional 

    Tier 1 councils and Rotorua District Council must enable the medium density residential standards. 

    The Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill contains provisions making the MDRS optional for councils.

    The Select Committee is currently considering submissions on the Bill and will report back to Parliament back to Parliament later this year

    Compliance and enforcement 

    Councils need to prepare and publish housing and business development capacity assessments, but don’t need to publish the underlying data.

    Existing compliance and enforcement powers in the RMA, including:

    • investigating the performance of a council
    • directing a council to do a plan change (but can’t direct specific process to follow)
    • appointing a person to perform the RMA functions of a council. 

    There will be a new requirement for councils to provide housing and business development capacity assessments and underpinning data and assumptions, to central government.

    New ability for central government to require councils to amend part or all their housing and business development capacity assessments or direct councils to use a specific plan change process, including the streamlined planning process, in the event of non-compliance with requirements.

    Existing compliance and enforcement powers remain in place. 

    Tier 1 Councils and urban environments 

    • Auckland (Auckland Council)
    • Christchurch (Canterbury Regional Council, Christchurch City Council, Selwyn District Council and Waimakariri District Council)  
    • Wellington (Wellington Regional Council, Wellington City Council, Porirua City Council, Hutt City Council, Upper Hutt City Council, Kāpiti Coast District Council)
    • Tauranga (Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Tauranga City Council and Western Bay of Plenty District Council)
    • Hamilton (Waikato Regional Council, Hamilton City Council, Waikato District Council and Waipā District Council) 

    Tier 2 Councils and urban environments

    • Whangārei (Northland Regional Council, Whangārei District Council)
    • Rotorua (Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Rotorua District Council)
    • New Plymouth (Taranaki Regional Council, New Plymouth District Council
    • Napier-Hastings (Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, Napier City Council and Hastings District Council) 
    • Palmerston North (Manawatū-Whanganui Regional Council and Palmerston North City Council)
    • Nelson Tasman (Nelson City Council, Tasman District Council)
    • Queenstown (Otago Regional Council, Queenstown Lakes District Council)
    • Dunedin (Otago Regional Council and Dunedin City Council) 

Pillar 2: Improvements to infrastructure funding and financing tools to support urban growth

In February 2025, the government announced decisions on the second stage of the Going for Housing Growth programme (GfHG), with improvements to infrastructure funding and financing tools to help get more housing built.

As a package these changes will provide councils and developers with a flexible funding and financing toolkit to respond to growth pressures and deliver infrastructure to land zoned for housing development. This is expected to reduce the current cross-subsidisation by ratepayers.

Decisions include:

Replacing development contributions with a development levy system

Shifting to development levies will provide councils and other infrastructure providers, such as, water council-controlled organisations, with increased flexibility to charge developers for the overall cost of growth infrastructure across an urban area.

Councils and other infrastructure providers will still be required to use identified infrastructure projects to calculate levies. However, they’ll be able to adapt plans to respond to growth and use development levy revenue to build the infrastructure needed to support housing and urban development.    

Key features of development levies:

  • The purpose of development levies is to ensure councils (and other infrastructure providers) charge developers a proportionate amount of the total cost of capital expenditure necessary to service growth over the long term.
  • Levies will be calculated based on expected levels of growth and aggregate growth costs for each urban area.
  • Separate levies will be maintained for each service, such as drinking water, wastewater, stormwater, transport, reserves, and community infrastructure.
  • Councils providing a service to part of a levy zone with particularly high growth costs, will have discretion to charge an additional high-cost asset levy on top of the base levy for that service.
  • Development levies will be subject to regulatory oversight and councils will be required to ensure they’re setting appropriate charges.
  • Councils will have discretion to phase in any transition to higher charges under the levy system to manage impacts on local development.

Making changes to improve the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Act

The government is making a number of amendments to improve the effectiveness of the IFF Act, particularly for developer-led projects. This includes:

  • Broadening the scope of the IFF Act so levies can be used in a wider range of circumstances.
  • A streamlined levy development and approvals process, particularly for proposals supported by landowners that would be subject to the levy.
  • Other changes to improve the flexibility of the IFF Act and support its use for a range of infrastructure projects.

Improving the flexibility of targeted rates for growth infrastructure

The Government is also making changes to enable a council to set targeted rates that apply when a rating unit (for example, a separate property) is created at subdivision stage. This change will support councils to apply the principle of ‘growth pays for growth’ in two ways:

  • Councils will now be able to set targeted rates that apply only to new developments
  • Councils will be able to use targeted rates and development levies together, where projects benefit existing residents and provide for growth. 

Next steps

Consultation on how Pillar 1 changes could be implemented through the new resource management system will commence in mid-2025. Further information on the development on the new resource management system is available on the Ministry for the Environment’s website. 

Reforming the resource management system – replacing the RMA (environment.govt.nz)(external link)

Further work is currently underway on detailed design of Pillar 2 improvements to infrastructure funding and financing tools. The legislation to implement these changes expected to be introduced in September 2025 and enacted in mid-2026. There will be opportunities for public feedback as part of this process.

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