Our latest Housing Need survey shows a significant amount of new public and social housing has been built recently and more is in the pipeline. Over the survey period July-December 2025, 76 new public and social homes were completed. Community housing providers have another 142 homes in the pipeline for 2026 and 2027, and government housing provider Kāinga Ora has another 95 homes due for completion in 2026, in Nelson and Richmond. All of these efforts will deliver the highest level of new affordable rental and public housing for Nelson and Tasman in over 25 years, which should start to make a meaningful impact for local residents in the next year.
However, the need for affordable housing is still high. The survey showed 763 households needed affordable housing, in addition to the 426 households on the Housing Register, as of 31 December 2025. The graph below shows the rising need in recent years for affordable housing (shown in blue), beyond what is counted by the Ministry of Social Development's Housing Register (shown in orange).
