Housing investment plan 2025

About the plan

The plan sets out the purchasing intentions to support the delivery of between 675 to 770 social homes and affordable rentals from 1 July 2027.  

These two housing interventions respond primarily to housing access issues for people in high housing need. 
Using data and community insights to understand housing need and supply of social housing, the government has identified nine locations as the focus for this budget allocation:

• Five target locations will receive most of the funding. These are: Far North, South Auckland, Eastern Bay of Plenty¹, Gisborne-Tairāwhiti and Hastings.
• Four locations in main centres (outside Auckland): Hamilton, Tauranga, Wellington and Christchurch. 
  These locations relate specifically to the Budget 2025 flexible fund. Investment locations will be reassessed for any future funding rounds.

For each of these locations, the plan describes what we intend to purchase, including the number of homes, preferred number of bedrooms and whether or not we’ll purchase or lease existing homes from the market or new builds. 

Footnote:

1. We are seeking to fund proposals located in the districts of Whakatāne, Kawerau and Ōpōtiki.

Purchasing intentions

Through Budget 2025, the flexible fund enables delivery of between 675–770 homes through two housing interventions:

• social housing delivered by community housing providers
• affordable rentals delivered by community housing providers, iwi Māori providers and other organisations who provide housing.

Application process

In addition to locations for investment, the plan outlines our proposed approach to procurement and criteria for receiving funding.

Through our application process we will identify delivery partners and delivery programmes that best align with the purchasing intentions outlined in this plan, will achieve positive outcomes for those who will be housed as well as wider community and local economy, are costed competitively and can be tenanted by mid- to late-2029.

We encourage proposals that support local housing strategies and community aspirations and reflect a collaborative approach in place. This could include proposals that can help to unlock additional housing supply (beyond that for which funding is sought). In areas where there is particularly high Māori housing need, we are interested in and expect proposals that are Māori led, with mana whenua involvement.

We will undertake a two-stage process to confirm our housing delivery programme. 

Stage one will identify preferred delivery partners in each investment location and their proposed programme of delivery. 

Stage two will assess and approve the projects that delivery partners identified in stage one.  

Applications for stage one will open by the end of February 2026.

Funding

Applications for stage one will open by the end of February 2026.

The plan will support between 675 to 770 homes to be delivered in two ways:

• social housing delivered by community housing providers
• affordable rentals delivered by community housing providers, Māori housing providers and other organisations who provide housing.

Local councils and Kāinga Ora are not eligible for funding under this plan.

More information

A recorded information briefing will be available on the website in December.  This will provide an overview of Budget 2025 purchasing intentions, the funding models available, the application process and timeframes.

Contact

Email investment@hud.govt.nz for any additional information or if you have any questions.