Improving infrastructure funding and finance for housing and urban development
Published 26 Nov 25
Today, the Government has announced changes to help improve how we fund and finance housing and urban development across Aotearoa New Zealand.
Earlier this year, the Government announced decisions on improvements to infrastructure funding and financing tools to help get more housing built as part of the second stage of the Going for Housing Growth programme.
While resource management reforms aim to free up land for development, it is critical these reforms are accompanied by improvements to infrastructure funding and financing.
The improvements to infrastructure funding and financing reflect the Government’s overarching approach of ‘growth pays for growth’ to enable more flexible provision of infrastructure that responds to development.
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.
Today, the Government announced the following:
- introduction of the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Amendment Bill to improve the effectiveness of the Infrastructure Funding and Financing 2020 Act
- consultation on an exposure draft Bill to replace development contributions with a development levies system
- in-principle decisions to establish the Commerce Commission as the regulator for councils charging development levies.
Consultation now open
Alongside the draft Bill for development levies, the Government has released a consultation document explaining the underlying policy for the Bill and seeking feedback on the proposed content of regulations which will support implementation.
Public consultation runs from late November to February 2026 and the Government intends to introduce legislation in mid-2026.
You can read the consultation document and provide feedback through the Department of Internal Affairs website.
Development levies consultation (external link)
Changes to the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Act 2020
The Infrastructure Funding and Financing Act 2020 provides a model for funding and financing infrastructure projects that support housing and urban development. It was introduced to help deliver infrastructure projects free from local authorities’ funding and financing constraints.
The Government is introducing an amendment bill to improve the effectiveness of the IFF Act. The proposed changes are intended to:
- remove unnecessary barriers to using the IFF Act
- improve its viability for a range of infrastructure projects
- make the levy development and approvals process simpler and more streamlined.
The Bill also broadens the scope of the IFF Act to include transport projects delivered by the New Zealand Transport Agency or KiwiRail, and water services infrastructure delivered by new water services organisations.
During the select committee process next year the public will have an opportunity to have their say on the amendments in the Bill.
