Just 270 of 1500 social homes built to date after First Home Grant axed to fund them

Monday, 20 July 2026

Political correspondent Zane Small reports on the Green Party and NZ First's clashing energy schemes, and a $60 million cement plant bailout.

The Housing Minister insists the Government is on track to deliver social housing funded by the cancellation of the First Home Grant and promised by the middle of next year.

Chris Bishop secured $140 million in Budget 2024 for community housing providers to deliver and operate 1500 new social homes by June 30, 2027.

It was funded by ditching the grant of up to $5000 (or $10,000 for a new build) available for first home buyers.

But according to a new progress report from the Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport (MCERT), just 18% of the promised social homes had been delivered by June 30 – halfway through the budgeted time frame.

Housing Minister, Chris Bishop, left, and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on their way to Monday’s post-cabinet press conference.

Another 1272 have been “approved”, meaning funding has been approved. The housing ministers office says these houses all have contracts in place, however the MCERT housing dashboard lists them as “approved” rather than “contracted”.

Labour’s housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said the figures show “National’s housing experiment is failing”.

“Kāinga Ora had a pipeline of projects ready to go. National chose to tear it down instead, leaving builders without work, the housing sector without certainty, and families without homes,” he said.

But according to Bishop, things are still on track.

“Anyone who has ever built a house knows construction isn't a straight line,” he said.

“Before homes can be completed there's planning, consenting, site preparation and infrastructure work. Suggesting you should have exactly half the homes completed halfway through a programme simply isn't how housing delivery works.”

According to a new report, just 18% of the promised social homes had been delivered by June 30 – halfway through the budgeted time frame.

Bishop said that 96% of the committed homes will be delivered by July next year. The remaining 4% will slip into September.

He is also standing by an additional commitment made in Budget 2025.

Last year, the Government promised $128 million over four years to deliver at least 550 more social homes in Auckland. Those were meant to be ready for tenanting in November 2026, and were on top of the 1500 promised the year earlier.

Just 263 of these 550 had been delivered by June 30. Another 374 are “approved”, but without contracts in place.

Still, Bishop is confident they will get done.

“Those homes are being delivered. There's a pipeline,” he said.

“We're actually doing more than we budgeted for. From memory, we're budgeting to do … 2150 homes as opposed to 2050 because we've got really good procurement and value for money.”

He said the Government is also on track to deliver 3000 net new social homes between November 2023 and November 2026.

A spokesperson for Bishop later clarified that he was talking about the 3000 new social homes promised for Auckland alone - a 2023 campaign promise.

Clarification: This story originally said no legal agreements were in place for the 1272 homes approved but not yet built. It has been updated after the Housing Minister’s office clarified that contracts were in place for the funded homes. They are not categorised as “contracted” on the government’s housing dashboard.