The New Zealand government has announced that US$700m of funding will be made available to build infrastructure needed to speed up housing developments. The money will be spent on accelerating projects on “build-ready land” to produce results in the shortest possible time.

The investment is part of the larger $2.7bn Housing Acceleration Fund (HAF), which aims to promote  

developments in large urban areas and regional centres that might not otherwise have been funded.

Projects are divided between “tier 1” schemes that focus on cities as Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington and Christchurch, each of which will gain at least 200 homes, and smaller “tier 2” projects in towns such as Rotorua, Palmerston North and Nelson, which will build more than 30 properties.

The latest tranche of funding will be spent on water infrastructure, sewage development, road works, flood management and projects that require design or feasibility studies.

Megan Woods, New Zealand’s housing minister, said: “The housing supply crisis is a problem decades in the making that will take time to turn around, but we are starting to make inroads on increasing supply and this fund will make a real difference to increasing the supply of housing by assisting in overcoming a key barrier to building – access to basic infrastructure.  

“Investment in infrastructure was identified by local councils and others as one of the key actions the government can take to increase the supply of housing in the short term.”

More funding for housing is due to be made announced later in 2021.