More public homes in half the time

The HDS is a new way of planning and building quality homes faster, driving productivity, reliability and reducing costs. It currently operates alongside existing ways Kāinga Ora is providing new homes for New Zealanders in need.

The latest milestone of houses built in a 59-day timeframe (including foundations, civil works and construction of three homes) reduces the standard construction time for a similar project by more than half.

“The challenge was set, and we nailed it,” says Jennian Homes Operations Manager, Paul Jenkins.

“We pride ourselves on doing a good job. We’ve got a high-quality process, and we’ll continue to do that. I believe Kāinga Ora and Jennian Homes have got a fantastic partnership. I wouldn’t have gone into the challenge of building this in 59 days unless I knew I had the support.

Kāinga Ora public housing customers are now beginning to move into the new one-bedroom homes in Christchurch, which are universally designed and accessibility friendly.

Earlier this year, Kāinga Ora also partnered with Jennian Homes Residential (NZ) & Jennian Homes Canterbury to complete three new homes in 68 days through the HDS. Learnings from this project were applied to the 59-day build, providing key insights and improvement opportunities.

HDS Group Lead, Jannie Greeff, says efficiencies are achieved by tightly coordinating and tracking all the different tasks, minimising duplication and rework.

“The reliable and repeatable nature of the HDS means our people and our build partners know what needs to happen, when it needs to be done and why, and who needs to do it,” says Jannie.

“It’s about detailed planning, resourcing and sequencing of tasks to create a predictable and steady workflow. The output of a high-quality home doesn’t change from our usual standards, just the way we get there.”

The HDS continues to evolve, as Kāinga Ora tests the system for regional differences, housing typologies and scale.

Homes are now being built using this method in more than 20 towns and cities throughout the country.

Through the HDS Kāinga Ora is also reducing the planning and design of new housing by 94% – from an average of 17 months to six weeks – enabling construction to get underway on the ground faster. Importantly, it means more homes for kiwis in a shorter time.

Strong sector partnerships are key to delivering on these targets, says Jannie.

“Speed is picking up and we are starting to see the rewards of all the good work over the last 18 months. Having build partners who are engaged and invested in this new way of delivery from the start makes all the difference.

“We cannot achieve these milestones in isolation. Together with our build partners and suppliers we continue to innovate and improve, so we can deliver housing in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible to meet the ongoing need in our communities.”

Watch the video below to hear more from build partner Jennian Homes Residential (NZ) & Jennian Homes Canterbury and the Kāinga Ora HDS team.

How does the HDS work?

The HDS co-ordinates and tracks the thousands of tasks involved in planning and building a home, to schedule the work more efficiently and make the best use of resources.

Every professional is together in one place from day one of the project - including architects, development and project managers, civil and structural engineers and landscape architects.

Professionals are asked to provide a realistic time they expect a task to take, called a ‘Reasonable Expectation’. This accuracy drives a reliable flow of work that enables predictable results, and detailed advanced planning reduces onsite delays.

Working side-by-side means different specialists understand how and why their individual tasks impact a housing project. Feedback from teams note the faster and effective in-person collaboration, the unique opportunity to learn regularly from other disciplines, the stronger sense of teamwork and overall efficiency and speed of project delivery.

Find out more about the Housing Delivery System.