State landlord Kāinga Ora sees 80% reduction in rent debts but still owed $4m

Monday, 4 May 2026

Kāinga Ora is owed more than $4m in rent arrears, and one tenant owes the State housing agency almost $25,000 in unpaid rent.

In Waikato alone the agency is owed a total of $399,858, according to data obtained by Waikato Times via an Official Information Act request.

However, the total amount of rent owed to the State housing provider has been slashed by 80% from the January 2024 peak of $21.6m, with the figure - as of February 2026 - standing at $4,327,193.

The agency also told the Waikato Times there are now fewer than 3000 tenants in rent arrears compared to June 2024.

It’s a reduction that Taxpayers Union spokesperson Tory Relf said was “welcome”, but she also noted “Kāinga Ora still being owed more than $4.3m. . . is still a huge amount of money”.

“Taxpayers will want to know how it was ever allowed to get that bad,” she said.

“The drop is of course welcome, and having around 3000 fewer tenants in arrears is genuinely good news, but it comes with an asterisk.

“Part of the reduction came from lowering some tenants’ debt to a ‘more realistic level’, so the real question is how much of this improvement came from actual repayment and how much came from writing debts down,” she said.

“The real problem is that Kāinga Ora costs far more to run than a typical private landlord. Results like this show the model isn’t working.”

Relf said it was time for alternatives to be looked at, including divesting housing stock and trialling rental vouchers so that tenants have real choice instead of being stuck in a system that continues to underperform.

When it comes to the private sector view, New Zealand Property Investors’ Federation spokesperson Matt Ball said he was “surprised and impressed” at the overall reduction.

'We have to give credit where it's due, and in this case Kāinga Ora and the government's focus on improving their management of arrears appears to be paying off. We hope that focus continues and the amount in arrears continues to fall.'

Ball did concede, however, that the data contained some “shockers”, particularly the $25,000 unpaid rent from one Wellington property.

'Market rent in Wellington, based on official bond data, averaged around $590 over the last 12 months,“ he said.

“At that rate $24,079 in arrears would be at least 40 weeks. Given Kāinga Ora charges less than market rent, that particular tenant could be over a year in arrears.

“Letting a tenant get that far behind is totally unacceptable - not just for Kāinga Ora, but for the tenant who is now saddled with a significant debt.'

Ball also said that if a private landlord allowed a tenant to accumulate such a substantial debt, “our advice would be that you’re in the wrong business”.

“No business can survive if its customers don’t pay their bills,” he said.

“We’d recommend that you either hire a property manager, or sell up and invest your money elsewhere.”

Kāinga Ora’s Ministerial Services manager Emma Atkins said a new approach introduced in early 2025 to managing rent arrears had reduced the amount owed and helped prevent people from accumulating large amounts of debt.

“Our approach focused on helping tenants avoid falling too far behind,” she said.

“We support households who fall on hard times but are making genuine attempts to get back on track with their rent, but we are taking a firm approach with the small number of tenants who are not meeting their obligations to reduce their rent debt, are skipping rent payments or refusing to work with us.

“We also undertook a one-off initiative to support some tenants with at least 12 weeks’ rent debt owed who were consistently paying their rent. We reduced the amount owed to a more realistic level that could be repaid in full, on the expectation they would continue paying their rent and reducing their debt.”

Rent arrears by region vary widely, with Wellington topping the list with a combined rent arrears debt of $1,259,642.

Auckland is the region with the second-largest combined debt at $803,435, followed by Waikato at $399,858.

The smallest combined debt was in the West Coast at just $4896, followed by Tasman at $11,315 and Southland at $16,153.

Wellington also topped the chart for the largest single amount owed in rent arrears at $24,079.

Bay of Plenty took second spot with one renter owing $16,301, followed by Otago with $14,598.

Waikato’s single largest rent arrears debt stands at $10,151.

In total, the largest rent debtors across 16 regions owe a combined $143,580.

Kāinga Ora data on the number of tenancy terminations has also fallen, from 101 at the year ending June 30, 2025 to 13 in February this year.