Government proposes ‘granny flat’ changes

Monday, 17 June 2024

The Government wants to change the law to make it easier to build “granny flats” on existing properties.

Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters and RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop announced the proposed changes to rules for building additional dwellings of up to 60 square metres, called “granny flats” because of their suitability for families wanting to live with grandparents, on Monday afternoon.

The announcement was made at regular post-Cabinet meeting press conference, which was held by Peters in place of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, currently in Japan. The granny flat proposal was part of the NZ First-National coalition agreement.

“Making it easy to build granny flats will make it more affordable for families to live in the way that suits them best,” Peters said.

The change, as specified by the Government in a “discussion document' about the proposal, was to exempt standalone, single-storey houses up to 60sqm from resource consent requirements. The flats would be permitted to have kitchen and bathroom plumbing and cooking facilities.

Only one such building would be permitted on each residential property, and yet to be determined was total building coverage of a residential site, and how close the dwelling would have to be from property boundaries.

Instead of requiring an engineer’s report, as suggested by the NZ First-National coalition agreement, the dwellings would instead need to be completed or supervised by licensed tradespeople, including a licensed builder.

“We want these to be safe, healthy and durable homes,” Bishop said.

“There is an increasing demand for smaller homes. There's an increasing demand for housing more generally because we have a housing crisis in this country.

“Removing this red tape will not only speed up the build process, it's estimated to also save up to $6500 just in the standard building and resource consenting fees per build. Not to mention of course all the savings in time and resource as well.”