ACT's Record

ACT has driven Government changes that make it easier to build homes and the infrastructure growing communities need. They include:

• Budget 2026 set aside $400 million over four years for the Incentives for Growth Fund, an ACT-National coalition commitment. Councils will be paid more when they consent more homes, with the money available for the local infrastructure and services that growth requires.

• The Infrastructure Funding and Financing Amendment Act made it easier for councils and developers to finance projects privately and repay the cost over time through levies on the properties that benefit. It widened the scheme to cover more transport and water projects and reduced the scope for agencies to hold up a qualifying proposal.

• The Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill will replace the RMA with a system based more closely on property rights. The Bills were reported back to Parliament in July 2026. Officials estimate the new system could remove 15,000 to 22,000 consent and permit applications each year.

• Changes to the Building Act let New Zealand recognise products already certified in trusted overseas markets. More than 90,000 Australian WaterMark products were recognised in the first round, followed by about 38,000 more in February 2026.

• Mortgage interest deductibility was restored for residential property. Tenancy law again allows 90-day no-cause terminations, restores the former notice periods and permits pet bonds, reducing some of the risk and cost of supplying rental homes.

• ACT secured the removal of the Sustaining Tenancies Framework. Seventy-five Kāinga Ora tenancies ended for disruptive behaviour in 2024/25, compared with two in 2022/23. By May 2026, the social-housing waitlist had fallen by nearly 6,000 and Kāinga Ora's forecast peak debt was $9.5 billion lower.

• ACT secured long-term Regional Deals as a coalition commitment. The Western Bay of Plenty Deal, signed in May 2026, is intended to support 12,000 greenfield homes and 3,000 infill homes over ten years, alongside transport and other infrastructure.

• ACT secured the cancellation of Let's Get Wellington Moving and the Lake Onslow pumped-hydro scheme, stopping two costly projects that did not stack up.

The coalition Government has not gone as far as ACT would like, but it has gone further than it would have without ACT.