Māori Housing — affordable homes and Māori land

The Policy: TPM Housing Policy — 2023 Election →

Pitched as a Treaty-grounded response to one of Aotearoa's deepest inequities, Te Pāti Māori's *Whānau Build* housing platform asserts that every whānau has a right to "a constant, warm, leak-free secure home" — and frames secure housing not as a luxury but, in the party's words, as "the ground everything else stands on." The policy fuses demand-side measures (tax disincentives on speculation), supply-side commitments (social housing allocation targets), and structural reform (removing barriers to building on whenua Māori) into a single kaupapa Māori framework.

Neutrality note: Te Pāti Māori housing policy intersects with Treaty rights, co-governance, and Māori-specific land law. Positions below are attributed, not endorsed.

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What it does

• 50 percent social housing allocation: Te Pāti Māori's Whānau Build policy commits to ensuring half of all new social housing is allocated to Māori. The rationale is statistical: Māori make up roughly 16% of the population but account for around 50% of the public housing waitlist, and over 60% of those experiencing homelessness identify as Māori. As at March 2026, there were 19,704 applicants on the national housing register — up 2.1% year-on-year.
• Foreign land sales ban: The party proposes to stop all sales of freehold land to offshore foreign interests and to extend the Overseas Investment Act to all residential housing purchases, targeting so-called "ghost homes" held by foreign investors.
• Vacant property tax: A 2% annual tax on the capital value of any home left unoccupied for three months or more in any one year, aimed at freeing landlocked speculative stock into the rental or sales market.
• Capital gains tax: A 2% annual CGT on property value appreciation, exempting the whānau (family) home. Combined with the party's broader tax policy — a 33% wealth tax on land-banking gains and a vacant property levy — the platform is designed to reduce speculative holding of residential and undeveloped land.
• Papakāinga and whenua Māori: Te Pāti Māori supports expanding development on whenua Māori (Māori-owned land), which comprises approximately 5% of Aotearoa's total land area — around 1.3 million hectares. Structural barriers have historically blocked this: the Te Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993 prevents Māori land from being used as mortgage security, and only 70 Kāinga Whenua Loans were issued in 12 years. Te Matapihi's Wayne Knox described the scheme as suffering "death by a thousand cuts."
• Policy retraction — immigration link removed: In August 2021, the original Whānau Build policy included an "indigenous first" clause that proposed curbing immigration until housing demand was met. On 29 August 2023, co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer publicly apologised to refugee and migrant communities for "harmful narratives," removed the language, and committed to manaakitanga-based inclusion.

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The result

Māori homeownership has fallen sharply — from roughly 70.5% in the 1930s to just 27.5% at the 2023 Census, compared with 65% for non-Māori. The Spinoff noted in January 2024 that the National-ACT-NZ First coalition abolished the dedicated Associate Minister of Housing (Māori Housing) role, and repealed planning legislation that had contained specific Treaty provisions. Budget 2025 cut $60 million from Māori and rangatahi housing — $40 million from Māori housing and $20 million from youth housing — while also winding down the $730 million Whai Kāinga Whai Oranga programme (which ended May 2025 having contracted 1,000 homes against targets of 1,000 new builds, 700 repairs, and infrastructure for 2,700 homes). Against this backdrop, Te Pāti Māori's 50% social housing allocation and speculation taxes remain unlegislated pledges from opposition.

Critics of the CGT and vacant-home tax proposals — including voices in the NZ Herald and business commentary — argue the revenue projections are optimistic and that property taxes alone cannot address supply-side deficits driven by zoning, infrastructure costs, and finance barriers on whenua Māori. Housing providers responding to the June 2026 papakāinga reform, announced by Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka — which permits up to 10 homes on Māori ancestral land without consent from July 2026 — cautioned that "planning reform alone does not build homes," pointing to ongoing finance and infrastructure gaps. Te Pouahi o Te Taitokerau Trust's Kris MacDonald welcomed the changes but stressed that success depends entirely on consistent implementation.

Co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer characterised Budget 2025 as a budget that "protects power, not people," and co-leader Rawiri Waititi described the government as "systematically erasing our constitutional rights" and "defunding Māori-led solutions." Despite Māori comprising at least 20% of the population, Māori development received just 0.27% of total Budget 2025 allocation — the lowest share in a decade.

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The impacts to watch

• Emergency housing crisis: In the September 2025 quarter, 2,382 emergency housing applications were declined — nearly three times the 801 declines recorded in late 2023. Around 60% of those approved and declined are Māori. One hundred percent of young people through Mā te Huruhuru have recently been declined emergency housing.
• Whenua Māori potential vs. access reality: With 1.3 million hectares of collectively owned land generating ~$5.3 billion annually, government modelling estimates papakāinga reform could add $3.7 billion in GDP over a decade — but mortgage access for multi-owner whenua remains structurally blocked without legislative reform beyond planning rules.
• Overcrowding and health costs: Māori children are disproportionately affected by housing-related health costs; 43% of Māori children (vs 66% of Pākehā children) live in owner-occupied homes. Overcrowding rates among Māori and Pasifika are approaching 50% in some cohorts.
• 2026 election platform: Te Pāti Māori enters the 2026 election with housing as a signature issue but internal party tensions (the High Court reinstatement of MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi in March 2026 following expulsion) have complicated the policy reset the co-leaders signalled in early 2026.