Infrastructure Acceleration Fund

The Infrastructure Acceleration Fund (IAF) is a key component of the Government’s $3.8 billion Housing Acceleration Fund announced in March 2021. It is a contestable fund for investment in enabling infrastructure to support new housing supply throughout Aotearoa.

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.

By increasing the supply of build ready land, the IAF will help to increase the numbers of homes that can be built, particularly in locations of high housing demand and with good access to public transport, jobs, education, and amenities.

Who is eligible to apply?

Territorial authorities, developers and iwi are eligible to apply to the IAF. Developers are strongly encouraged to work with the relevant territorial authority in the first instance.

What type of infrastructure projects?

To be eligible, infrastructure projects must be:

• new or upgraded infrastructure for:
  • transport (including local roading, state highways, public transport infrastructure, footpaths, and cycleways),
  • three waters (water supply, wastewater, and stormwater)
  • flood-management infrastructure.
• Wholly or primarily for the purpose of building new or additional houses in the short to medium term; and which are expected to add:
  • 200 additional dwellings in tier one urban environments (under the National Policy Statement on Urban Development(external link)).
  • 100 additional dwellings in tier two urban environments.
  • 30 additional dwellings elsewhere.

What is the process?

Territorial authorities, iwi, and developers can apply to the IAF through the:

• Programme path - for main urban areas where infrastructure investment is more complex. Councils covered by Urban Growth Partnerships who are required to apply through this path include:
  • Auckland Council (including council-controlled organisations).
  • Smart Growth: Tauranga City Council and Western Bay of Plenty District Council.
  • Future Proof: Waikato Regional Council, Waipa District Council, Waikato District Council, and Hamilton City Council.
  • Wellington Regional Growth Framework: Wellington City Council, Hutt City Council, Upper Hutt City Council, Porirua City Council, Kāpiti Coast District Council, Horowhenua District Council, South Wairarapa District Council, Carterton District Council, and Masterton District Council.
  • Greater Christchurch Partnership: Christchurch City Council, Selwyn District Council and Waimakariri District Council
  • Queenstown Lakes District Council.
• Project path - for councils, developers, and iwi across all other parts of New Zealand.

A two-stage process will apply across both application paths:

• In stage one, all applicants are invited to provide an expression of interest (EOI) with high level information on the housing development and the eligible infrastructure projects enabling the housing development (Proposal).
• In stage two, following an assessment of the Proposal submitted at the EOI stage against the evaluation criteria, a reduced number of applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal in response to an RFP (at which point a collective approach for applicants under the programme approach will be applied).

These paths include a fast-track process where a very small number of first-stage proposals can progress quickly to final investment decisions, with the remainder of investment decisions made in 2022.

Evaluation Criteria

We are looking for Proposals that are sufficiently advanced to provide enough certainty on housing outcomes, whilst not being so advanced such that IAF funding is not critical. Developers and landowners are expected to pay their fair share and Council’s contributions are not to be displaced.

Kāinga Ora will evaluate proposals against the evaluation criteria. They are summarised as follows:

(i) Housing outcomes (40%): how will the Proposal, if delivered, contribute to the housing outcomes that are the purpose of the Infrastructure Fund?

(ii) Impact of funding (20%): how critical is this funding to advancing the infrastructure and housing development?

(iii) Cost and co-funding (20%): how cost effective is the Proposal and is everyone paying their fair share?

(iv) Capability and readiness (20%): if funding is approved, how certain is it that the project will advance, and at what pace?

Latest information

More than 200 applications were received in the initial expressions of interest period, with over $5 billion requested from the IAF. All applications were subject to a robust evaluation process and applicants were informed of the results in mid-October 2021. More than 80 proposals have now gone through to the next stage of the process, with successful councils, iwi and developers invited to submit a response to a request for proposal by December 17th.

Read the latest media release Government infrastructure fund moves to next stage.

Where can I get further information?

For any information, please email the IAF Project Team on IAF@kaingaora.govt.nz.

For background information, including Cabinet papers see the Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga – Ministry of Housing and Urban Development(external link) website.