Housing in NZ is failing Māori and Pacific people - experts

Thursday, 12 February 2026

Te Kainga Atawhai at Te Mahurehure Marae is a 14-home papakāinga in Pt Chevalier, central Auckland, and an example of housing that does meet the needs of Māori.

Housing is failing to meet Māori and Pacific families’ needs in New Zealand, according to University of Auckland experts, who say our homes are too small, too expensive and not set up for intergenerational living.

Te Awhina Marae’s 20-unit papakāinga development, under construction in 2023, has provided 20 new low-cost rental homes in Motueka, Tasman.

Professor Deidre Brown and Dr Karamia Müller, directors of the university’s Māori and Pacific Housing Research Centre Māpihi, say skyrocketing housing prices have left many unable to afford their own homes.

In 2023, only 16.8% of Pacific people and 27.5% of Māori owned their own home, compared with a national home ownership rate of 66%.

Brown says extended family living, which requires larger homes and different layouts, has traditionally been important for whānau Māori in particular as grandparents were the keepers of intergenerational knowledge, and passed that down, including passing on te reo Māori.

Professor Deidre Brown established the Māpihi Māori and Pacific Housing Research Centre at the University of Auckland, which focuses on creating healthy, affordable, and sustainable housing for Māori and Pacific communities.

She says intergenerational living is optimal for many cultures, and further research into how Indian and Chinese communities were living would be valuable.

“With the changing socio-economic dynamic, with the cost of living in the Pākeha communities too, with children living at home for longer for instance, these modes of living are becoming increasingly important.”

Auckland University architecture expert Karamia Muller says more social housing and more innovative housing solutions are needed.

She gives the example of a 14-home papakāinga at Te Māhurehure Cultural Marae in Pt Chevalier central Auckland, with homes both for people from the marae, and also some from the social housing register.

It has communal facilities, including kitchens.

“Because it has a marae structure around it, the people have community built in,” Brown says. “It’s people looking after each other, a strong sense of manaakitanga.”

Müller says housing pressures are particularly intense in regions such as Bay of Plenty, Rotorua, Auckland, Northland, Oamaru and other parts of the South Island.

“Some regions have additional pressures from homelessness, some need more social housing, and some need more innovative options for home ownership,” Müller says.

Most houses in New Zealand have been designed with small, nuclear families in mind, say Brown and Müller.

Intergenerational living for Māori and Pacific people helps with cultural resilience, they say: “It’s mana enhancing.”

Brown says one larger house is often needed to accommodate Māori whanau, and this can be more affordable than two or three smaller houses.

“Māori whanau thrive when they live as extended whanau.

“Much more flexible houses are required. The houses we have don’t accommodate larger families - they don’t have options like two kitchens, they don’t allow for people to come and stay for longer periods,” says Brown.

She says the newly enacted granny flat legislation could go some way to helping. “It does give another option for all families.” However, she says there is some concern that while it does “cut out bureaucratic red tape” (by eliminating the need for building consent), it also “moves responsibility back to the homeowner”, so people need to go into it with their eyes open.

Müller says Pacific people have different values about the way buildings connect with the environment.

“The issue isn’t just about the design of the houses, it’s about how housing is placed, what it connects us to in the environment and whether that’s a source of wellbeing or impacts our wellbeing negatively.”

Māori and Pacific design elements scarcely featured in New Zealand architecture until about 15 years ago, she says.

“Up until recently, more buildings than not have been what you would think of as Pakeha buildings.

“More recently, we’re seeing an emergent movement around Māori and Pacific design and architecture,” says Müller.

The discipline of Māori architecture barely existed when Brown began her postgraduate studies, so her mission has been to create one.

“I see Karamia and I and some others around Aotearoa as creating a contemporary architecture movement.

“We’re looking for transformational change in the built environment to meet the needs of Māori and Pacific people and New Zealanders generally,” Brown says.

The University’s School of Architecture and Planning focuses on training architectural students in placed-based design, says Brown.

“We encourage our graduates to draw on the environment – whether that’s the people or the whenua – to inform their design.”

In the past, public buildings, such as airports and hotels, often featured “tokenistic gestures” to Māori culture, says Brown.

“Now, we’re seeing architects and architectural designers incorporating Māori and Pacific concepts and the involvement of communities in co-design.

“These innovations make sure what communities want and need is reflected in the architecture,” says Brown.

Māori and Pacific design elements in buildings help reflect a sense that Aotearoa is a unique country, located in the Pacific, they say.

“Some people might say ‘why Māori and Pacific when we live in New Zealand?’, but these design elements actually speak to a wider New Zealand identity.

“Māori design elements in our architecture are unique to this whenua.

“They have been developed over almost a millennium by Māori people to reflect our relationships to nature and the way we live in this land,” says Brown.