The government is asking for public feedback on proposed changes to how we can create more housing in Aotearoa, such as ‘granny flats’ in backyards and papakāinga on Māori ancestral land.
Proposed National Environmental Standards (NES) for granny flats would require all councils to permit a granny flat of up to 70 m2 on an existing property without needing to get a resource consent, subject to certain conditions. The new NES for papakāinga would create uniform standards across the motu, and would allow Māori landowners to build up to 10 homes for small papakāinga without needing a resource consent.
Submissions on these and many other proposed changes to the Resource Management Act are open until Sunday, 27 July.
The SMC asked experts to comment.
Jade Kake, Senior Lecturer, Huri te Ao School of Future Environments, AUT, comments:
Comment on New NES for papakāinga:
“Papakāinga provisions vary widely throughout Aotearoa, with territorial authorities either having no provisions at all or provisions with varying approaches, rules, and definitions of papakāinga. This issue was raised in the Office of the Auditor General’s 2011 report and in the 2014 follow-up. Whilst a number of individual territorial authorities have initiated plan change processes in the intervening years to adopt papakāinga policies, many have yet to initiate this process. The proposed NES will be welcomed by Māori housing advocates, including Te Matapihi he tirohanga mō te Iwi Trust, who have long advocated for consistency at a national level with regards to papakāinga provisions.
“The NES for papakāinga is an important step towards unlocking Māori land for the development of papakāinga, providing national direction to territorial authorities to introduce minimum standards for papakāinga within their district plans. For some, this will mean introducing new papakāinga policies; for others, this will mean making changes to existing ones. These are minimum standards, which means that although territorial authorities can set their own rules, these must meet or exceed the minimum standards (be more enabling) but cannot be less enabling.
“A major issue is that much of Māori land is zoned rural, with density provisions of around one dwelling per 10 hectares, limiting the ability of whānau Māori to establish or re-establish kāinga on their ancestral lands. Under the proposed provisions, the NES will remove the need for notified consents for papakāinga (of up to 10 dwellings) within all territorial authority areas. Māori landowners (of Māori ancestral land as defined in the NES) will be able to develop up to 10 residential units, marae, and a number of ancillary non-residential activities (such as commercial, conservation, educational, health, sports and recreation activities, provided these are directly associated with the papakāinga) as a matter of right without the need for resource consent (for the activity – consents can still be required for other matters, such as earthworks, wastewater, Indigenous vegetation clearance, etc). The NES also includes provisions for medium and larger papakāinga: medium-sized papakāinga (11-30 units) will be a restricted discretionary activity, and more than 30 units will be a discretionary activity.”
Comment on New NES for Granny Flats (Minor Residential Units) Regulations:
“Similar to the NES for papakāinga, these changes direct territorial authorities to amend their district plans to allow for one minor residential unit per site in residential, rural, mixed-use, and Māori purpose zones across all of New Zealand. Many district plans already provide for minor residential units as a permitted activity, and some are more enabling, however, the NES will ensure that all territorial authorities adopt this standard as a minimum. Outside of papakāinga provisions, this will provide greater opportunities for multigenerational living on a single site, enabling whānau to develop a minor dwelling or granny flat without the need for resource consent.”
Conflict of interest statement: “Not a conflict, but I have a background in policy advocacy and have provided policy advice to government and political parties and provided expert commentary both in an independent capacity and in a previous role for Te Matapihi he Tirohanga mō te Iwi Trust, an independent national Māori housing advocacy organisation.”
Dr Timothy Welch, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, University of Auckland, comments:
Note: Dr Welch also recently wrote an in-depth piece on this topic for The Conversation.
“While New Zealand’s granny flat exemption removes important regulatory barriers, we need to be honest about its limitations. Adding 13,000 small units over a decade – just 2.6% more housing supply – won’t solve a crisis of this magnitude. With construction costs reaching $300,000, these units primarily benefit existing property owners who can access capital, not the young families and essential workers most in need of affordable housing.
“The real challenge isn’t just regulation – it’s infrastructure capacity and construction costs. Our water networks are already strained, and dispersed infill development only adds pressure. The policy’s design constraints, requiring standalone single-storey units, deliver the least efficient form of density possible.
“This is progress, but incremental progress. We should embrace these reforms while acknowledging they’re no substitute for the comprehensive urban development our housing crisis demands. Granny flats can be part of the solution, but only if we view them as one small component of much larger reforms needed to house New Zealanders affordably.”
No conflicts of interest.
Professor John Tookey, School of Future Environments, AUT, comments:
“The proposal for broadening the opportunities to construct 70m2 ‘granny flats’ is a useful way of generating additional housing, specifically by creating rental properties in the category of ‘home with income’ subsidiary dwellings. The initial reporting around this issue in effect predicted a housing free-for-all where any proposals would likely be approved. In reality this was always misleading. The new proposals indicate more reservations in that zoning will need careful consideration of the cumulative effects of all the critical infrastructural loads servicing the proposed property. These include such issues as provision of potable water, managing stormwater, sewerage, on/off street parking, traffic volumes, schools, hospitals etc. In short, this will not and cannot be a free for all for development. In reality, councils will likely err on the side of caution in their announcements of zones suitable for the new granny flats because of these infrastructural impacts. Hence the outcome is unlikely to be a panacea for developing affordable housing in our cities. More likely a measured additional option rather than a ‘go to’ across the country.”
No conflicts of interest.