MIL Email Publisher (NZ)

Housing is failing to meet Māori and Pacific families’ needs in New Zealand, say University of Auckland experts Professor Deidre Brown and Dr Karamia Müller.

Housing prices have skyrocketed, leaving many Māori and Pacific people unable to afford their own homes, say Brown and Müller, who are directors of the University’s Māori and Pacific Housing Research Centre – MĀPIHI.

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

Cities have become increasingly gentrified, pushing Pacific people to the edges or outside cities, says Müller.

“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 (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu) and Müller (Sāmoa).

Many Māori and Pacific families are larger and several generations often want to live together.

“Housing isn’t meeting the needs of Māori and Pacific people across the nation, sadly,” says Müller.

“Māori and Pacific people tend to live intergenerationally. They tend to find cultural resilience by living together – it’s mana enhancing.

“But the majority of the housing stock isn’t designed to enable and empower intergenerational living.”

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.

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

“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, say Brown and Müller.

“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.

Müller says most building materials these days come from overseas.

“With the increased globalisation of building materials, it is even more important to have Māori and Pacific design elements in the built realm, because the built realm is a mirror of who we are.

“It affirms and builds our sense of identity,” says Müller.

Source: Brainchild for RealEstate.co.nz

• Nationally, listings rose 7.8% year-on-year while total stock grew just 1.8%, indicating homes are selling through rather than accumulating
• Over 12,200 new listings hit the market in February 2026, more than in any other month of February since 2013
• Southland records all-time average asking price high of $584,768

The property market is showing signs of turning, according to new data from realestate.co.nz.

New listings surged 7.8% year-on-year in February to 12,252, the highest level for February since 2013, while total housing stock rose by just 1.8%. The slower growth in overall stock compared to new listings suggests properties are being sold through rather than accumulating.

Month to date, the number residential property seekers on realestate.co.nz are also up year-on-year, pointing to increased buyer confidence. Sales data from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) also supports a moving market, with the strongest sales to start to a year since the 2022 market peak*.

Sarah Wood, CEO of realestate.co.nz, says February’s figures show sellers aren’t sitting on the sidelines anymore.

“When new listings rise faster than total stock, it tells us homes are being sold through rather than sitting on the market. That’s an early sign that activity is lifting and sellers are feeling more confident about listing. It’s early days, the OCR didn’t change last week, and we need to remember it’s an election year, but we are seeing momentum, which is what we had hoped to see in 2026.”

Contributing to the surge in new listings were four regions which recorded year-on-year growth of more than 20%:

• Central North Island recorded a 25.0% year-on-year increase to 160 new listings
• Taranaki experienced a 22.3% year-on-year increase to 280 new listings
• Marlborough recorded a 21.1% year-on-year increase to 15 new listings
• Manawatu/Whanganui reported a 20.9% year-on-year increase to 549 new listings.

Southland was the only region to record a double-digit year-on-year decline in February, down 13.9% to 217 new listings.

What’s happening to average asking prices in the regions?
The national average asking price remained steady in February, up just 1.4% year-on-year to $861,180. However, more movement was felt in the regions.

Southland recorded a new all-time average asking price high of $584,768, a 10.6% increase on February 2025. It was one of four regions to record a February high: Central North Island saw the biggest year-on-year increase, up 15.3% to $868,057; Central Otago/Lakes District was up 12.1% year-on-year to $1,613,298, and Canterbury, despite only increasing its average asking price by 3% year-on-year, recorded a February high of $738,385.

Northland’s average asking price dropped out of the $800k bracket for the first time since June 2025, to $799,879. While Waikato tipped back into the $800,000 bracket for the first time in a year, increasing a marginal 0.8% year-on-year.

Wood says price stability at a national level provides reassurance, but the regional variation shows signs of renewed confidence around the country.

“Areas like Southland and Central North Island, which have recorded all time February and overall highs, contrast with Northland, which has declined. Movement like this reinforces the notion that property is a local market.

Do current stock levels point to market activity?
National stock levels rose a modest 1.8% year-on-year to 36,357 in February 2026. However, stock is not increasing at the same pace as new listings, suggesting properties are being sold through rather than accumulating, and signalling strengthening market activity. Although not an all-time high, the last time total stock was over 36,000 in the month of February was in 2015.

Of our 19 regions, 13 saw single-digit growth, with Northland recording the largest year-on-year increase of 9.1%. No region recorded double-digit stock level growth.

However, three regions recorded double-digit, year-on-year stock declines in February:

Southland’s stock levels fell 21.4% to 522 (compared to 664 in February 2025). It is the region with the largest year-on-year drop for the eighth consecutive month.
Central Otago/Lakes District recorded a 15.6% year-on-year decline with 862 properties compared to the 1022 listed in February 2025.
Otago’s stock levels also fell 11.5% to 1041, down from 1176 in February 2026.

Wood says February’s data points to a market beginning to shift.

“If this continues, we could see conditions become more competitive.  Confidence is rebuilding gradually, and while external factors like interest rates and the election will influence sentiment, we can expect to see more activity in the market throughout the year.”