Social housing provider breaking ground on new home building model
Government agency Kāinga Ora is working with the construction sector on trialling a new model for home building contracts to improve the efficiency of public housing delivery.
Kāinga Ora, which provides rental housing and first home buyer assistance for New Zealanders in need, will co-design a pilot agreement alongside building partners and suppliers.
This will result in Kāinga Ora taking a more active role in the supply of building materials and how building partners work when undertaking construction projects for the agency.
The co-designed contract model will then be piloted on the construction of more than 100 homes in Rotorua, with building scheduled to begin before the end of this year.
Five-point plan to build faster and cheaper
While exact details of the pilot agreement are still to be finalised, the following principles will apply:
- The agreement will incentivise all parties to deliver better housing outcomes.
- All parties will work in partnership.
- Contracts will be more focused on results than penalties.
- Information about costs, crewing levels and lead times will be shared openly between all parties.
- By reducing complexity and penalties, they will change the industry culture of passing on risks in a way that increases costs and damages customer-builder-supplier relationships.
Matt Hulett, General Manager of the Delivery Transformation Group at Kāinga Ora, said Kāinga Ora would begin in-depth co-design workshops with selected construction partners and materials suppliers in October.
“We are co-designing the pilot because we want the key players involved in the supply chain of public housing to be aligned and clear on the outcomes, so we can increase productivity and deliver homes more efficiently from the beginning,” he said.
“Once embedded, Kāinga Ora will be able to build public housing faster and more cost-effectively, and the construction industry will have access to a more predictable pipeline of house building work.”