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Going for housing growth, to improve housing affordability

By Lisa Perry, Planner, Baseline Group, Christchurch Ph 0800 257 123, E: info@ blg.nz | Aug 23, 2024

The 2023 election saw a change in government and a shift in direction from building up and intensifying urban land to building out. This shift is part of a work programme for reforming New Zealand’s resource management system and includes implementing a “Going for Housing Growth” work package to “fix the housing crisis”.

The work programme is expected to be implemented through amendments to the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA), the National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD) and, significantly for rural local authorities like the Selwyn District, the National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land (NPS-HPL). The Government intends to refocus the NPS-HPL where the most productive soils (Land Use Categories 1 and 2) will remain protected, while Land Use Category 3 (LUC 3) soil will be excluded from the definition of highly productive soil, opening land up for development.

Towards the end of 2025, the Government also plans to replace the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) with new resource management legislation that has the enjoyment of private property rights as a guiding principle. The intent is to simplify planning rules and make resource consents for houses cheaper and faster.

The “Going for Housing Growth” programme is intended to be rolled out in three parts over three years:

  1. Unlocking land for housing.
  2. Infrastructure financing tools.
  3. Housing performance incentives for councils.

The Government has released details on stage 1, unlocking land, for Tier 1 and Tier 2 Councils.

Selwyn District Council, as a Tier 1 Council, will be required to both identify future land for residential development, and to zone this land to meet at least 30 years of housing demand (three years of demand is the current minimum). In addition, the Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS) will be made optional, the intent of which is to give Councils the freedom to choose where it is appropriate to build up and where it is appropriate to build out, as long as 30 years’ worth of land is available now. Given the MDRS has already been implemented in Selwyn, Selwyn District Council will be required to hold a “ratification vote” to confirm whether the MDRS are to remain in place, be modified or scrapped. The Government has not yet advised a timeframe on when this must happen.

The above signals a government supportive of greenfield development, which for Selwyn now (and other rural local authorities) means LUC 3 land. Given the government’s intent to refocus the NPS-HPL to remove LUC 3 soil from the definition of highly productive land, opportunities to develop LUC 3 land, which were difficult at best, may soon become available.

The Government will progress these changes through a Resource Management Amendment Bill and national direction process. Formal consultation is anticipated to begin in early 2025 and be implemented in late 2025.

If you would like to know more or wonder if your land will have development potential as a result of these changes, get in touch with a land development professional for advice and guidance.

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