Housing Acceleration Fund

In March 2021 the Government announced the $3.8 billion Housing Acceleration Fund (HAF), a series of initiatives that seeks to increase housing supply and improve affordability for first home buyers and renters by:

• unlocking more land for housing development, particularly in locations close to jobs, public transport, and amenities;
• supporting the provision of critical infrastructure needed for that development; and
• supporting delivery of a wider mix of housing (for ownership and rental) that is affordable for low-to-moderate income households.

The HAF is not about government doing everything itself. It is committed to building on existing relationships in our urban and regional areas, and working alongside local government, the private sector, iwi and Māori, and the not-for-profit sector to meet New Zealand’s housing needs.

Kāinga Ora components of the HAF

Kāinga Ora has a key role in implementing significant components of the HAF. These are:

Large Scale Projects (LSPs)
We are delivering five large scale projects (LSPs) across Auckland in Mt Roskill, Māngere, Tāmaki, Northcote and Oranga and one in Eastern Porirua. These are significant urban regeneration projects that will improve outcomes in neighbourhoods and provide opportunities for intensification in strategic areas.

Increased investment in LSPs through the HAF accelerates the pace and scale of housing delivery on these developments and opens up extra housing opportunities in surrounding land.

Infrastructure Acceleration Fund (IAF)
The IAF is a contestable fund for investment in enabling infrastructure to support new housing supply throughout Aotearoa.  The IAF aims to increase the pace and scale of housing delivery by helping to fund critical infrastructure needed for developments.  The IAF is a contestable process designed to identify and select projects for infrastructure funding.  In order to secure the greatest impact from the IAF, locations that have infrastructure constraints and are facing the biggest housing supply and affordability issues will be prioritised, while also ensuring that there is an ability for quality projects from anywhere in Aotearoa to receive funding.

Read more about the IAF, including the evaluation criteria for the contestable fund and the process for submitting Expressions of Interest.

Complementary programmes of work

The HAF is complemented by two further initiatives announced in March

Kāinga Ora Land Programme
The HAF is complemented by the Kāinga Ora Land Programme, through which an extra $2 billion of lending is available for Kāinga Ora to strategically acquire and develop land to increase housing supply and improve affordability.

Affordable Housing Fund
The $350 million Residential Development Response Fund, originally established to support the construction industry through Covid-19, is now repurposed to support the delivery of more affordable housing options for rent and ownership.

The Affordable Housing Fund will focus on increasing affordable housing provision (rental and home ownership) on land owned by iwi and Maori groups, councils, community groups and private developers, through the Crown sharing some of the cost and risk.