Lobby group blasts Kāinga Ora rent forgiveness

Thursday, 11 June 2026

The Taxpayers’ Union has blasted the $7.4m Kāinga Ora rent forgiveness as cash “that can't go into our schools, our hospitals and housing for those who would actually respect their obligations”.

In the wake of the Waikato Times revealing the state housing agency wiped $7.4m in total rent payments nationwide as part of a one-off arrears forgiveness, Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson Tory Relf said the revelation came just a month after it was discovered that Kāinga Ora is still owed $4 million in unpaid rent.

“Now we find out taxpayers have lost out on $7.4 million in forgiven rent arrears. How on earth did senior leadership ever let it get this bad?', she said.

“Why wasn't a 'line drawn' months ago by Kāinga Ora before the figure got this high. Why did it take the need to forgive historic arrears for policy change around ending tenancy's to be enacted at all?”

Relf said that the private sector “would have had to board up shop with books like this”.

“$2.5m worth of forgiveness in Wellington alone is taxpayer funding that can't go into our schools, our hospitals and housing for those who would actually respect their obligations. ”

Data obtained by the Waikato Times via an Official Information Act request revealed Wellington topped the regional breakdown for the largest amount of forgiven debt at just under $2.5m - $2,460,871, followed by Waikato - $905,206 - and Auckland - $899,409.

The coalition Government said they aimed to take a tougher stance on rent arrears and anti-social behaviour from state house tenants, with the agency saying they were “drawing a line on how patient we can be”.