The Government has announced significant changes to infrastructure funding and financing to address the country’s “ongoing housing crisis”.
As part of the ‘Going for Housing Growth’ programme, Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Local Government Minister Simon Watts outlined reforms aimed at making land more accessible, improving infrastructure funding, and incentivizing councils to support urban expansion.
While previous measures focused on freeing up land, Bishop emphasised that land alone is not enough—housing development must be backed by reliable infrastructure, including water, transport, and community facilities.
The Government’s goal is to create a system where “growth pays for growth,” ensuring that infrastructure costs are fairly distributed and preventing ratepayers from shouldering the burden.
Key changes include replacing Development Contributions with a Development Levy system, allowing councils to charge developers for long-term infrastructure costs based on projected growth.
Additional reforms introduce regulatory oversight to ensure fair levy charges, increase the flexibility of targeted rates, and enhance the Infrastructure Funding and Financing (IFF) Act to better support developer-led projects.
The reforms also broaden funding tools to cover major transport projects. Bishop highlighted that these measures will provide greater certainty for developers and councils, reduce administrative complexity, and ultimately lead to more housing supply by discouraging land banking.
The Government plans to introduce legislation in 2025, with implementation expected by 2027.
Image credit: Tom Rumble
More regulations 🙄more wasted money on too many middle managers who do nothing. NZ needs Elon! And Trump