Record response to granny flat proposal

Record response to granny flat proposal

The Government says a record number of submissions were received on the proposal to make it easier to build small, self-contained, detached houses of up to 60m² on a property with an existing home on it, without requiring a building or resource consent. However, not all were in favour of the proposal

The Ministry of Building, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) consultation ran from 17 June to 12 August 2024 and received a total of 1,970 submissions. Builders, architects and designers made up 28% of submitters, with ‘not identified’ (25%) and homeowners (32%) the other main groups.

“This is the highest number of submissions we’ve received for a building and construction consultation – more than twice the previous highest number of around 800 submissions,” said Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk.

Feedback received wasn’t universally in support of the proposal. MBIE grouped responses into five themes, which are outlined below.

1. Problem definition, outcomes and safeguards

The discussion document stated that regulatory compliance costs and the time it takes for homes to reach the final inspection – and then receive a Code Compliance Certificate (CCC) – is a major barrier reducing the cost of housing.

“Industry and council submitters generally agreed with the problem definition, stating that housing affordability was a major issue in their respective regions,” stated the report.

“However, submitters in these groups were concerned that the proposed outcomes could not be achieved by enabling granny flats as the cost of consenting only made up a small fraction of the cost of building.”

Furthermore, councils were concerned that ratepayers would be made to foot the bill for increased monitoring and enforcement to make sure homeowners were notifying councils of granny flat construction, and that failure to do so would lead to incomplete record keeping.

2. Proposal under the Building Act 2004

In general, homeowners and industry are supportive of the granny flat proposal but retain some concerns about managing the risk of building failure. On the other hand, councils do not support proposals to make it easier to build granny flats without some form of building consent.

“Councils submitted that to sufficiently manage the risk of building failure, there must be a building consent, pointing to residential inspection failure rates as evidence of this,” said MBIE.

Some submitters suggested that alternative options under the Building Act 2004 could be fast-track consents for granny flats, or to make better use of the MultiProof and BuiltReady schemes.

3. Proposal under the Resource Management Act 1991

In terms of the Resource Management Act 1991, many councils expressed concern that the proposed policy doesn’t align with other policies – such as the medium density residential standards and the National Policy on Urban Development (2020). There were also concerns raised regarding the inconsistency between the Building Act conditions and the proposed national environmental standards.

4. Notification and funding infrastructure

A large majority of responses acknowledged that councils should be notified about the construction of a granny flat.

“Many homeowners, but also industry groups, preferred a simplified approach, leaving it to the owner or Licensed Building Practitioner to submit a notification, either by letter or email, to the council directly on completion of works,” said the report.

The compulsory Project Information Memorandum under the Building Act was the preferred method of doing so.

Additionally, a slight majority of submissions favoured councils retaining the ability to charge development contributions for granny flats to contribute to the cost of council infrastructure.

Part 5: Māori land, papakāinga and kaumātua housing

Submitters generally said the policy supports Māori housing outcomes by reducing some cost and increasing the supply of housing. However, there were concerns that it would make some existing issues worse – such as poor-quality housing. Furthermore, many submitters thought Māori housing should be addressed via a separate policy.

Next steps

MBIE says that the feedback received will help inform analysis and further policy development.