The Housing, Building and Associate Finance Ministers have marked the start of new rules allowing easier building of small dwellings.
Chris Bishop, Chris Penk and Shane Jones visited a granny flat in Auckland's Riverhead on Thursday.
They were there to talk up the changes as well as shifts in national direction linked to the government's resource management reforms.
The new granny flat rules allow a small dwelling with a simple design of up to 70 square metres to be built without a resource consent, and are in effect from today.
Tenants at the minor dwelling in Riverhead speak with Chris Bishop and Chris Penk. Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel
The ministers embark a tour of the minor dwelling dubbed 'The Gatehouse'. Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel
Homeowners must notify their local council before building, and once it is completed, and work must be carried out or supervised by licensed builders.
Variations and exemptions must be taken into account.
Homeowners and builders should also check the new National Environmental Standards for Detached Minor Residential Units to ensure their plan met the standard.
Bishop said providing housing in New Zealand had been overly difficult and expensive for too long.
Chris Bishop and Chris Penk take a tour of a granny flat. Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel
The lounge area flows to a small covered outdoor area. Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel
Jones said the changes would save up to $5650 on building a granny flat and speed up the process by about 14 weeks.
Penk said he was looking forward to the change boosting productivity in construction with as many as 13,000 additional granny flats expected over the next decade.
National direction
Alongside the granny flats changes, a total of 10 updated or new National Policy Statements (NPS) come into effect.
A further five National Environmental Standards and other national direction instruments are expected to be considered by Cabinet in coming months.
Shane Jones. Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel
The kitchen provides an example of what landowners could achieve with newly relaxed regulations. Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel
Bishop said it was "staggering" the country had not had an NPS for infrastructure until now.
"Making these changes now mean that New Zealanders can see some of the benefits from a more enabling, simpler planning system now, rather than waiting until our new planning system fully takes effect."
He said the changes were extensively consulted on last year.
Updated NPSs cover renewable electricity generation and electricity networks, natural hazards, highly productive land, indigenous biodiversity, freshwater management, freshwater regulation, and coastal policy.
The latter would provide a "more flexible approach to the use of Land Use Capability Class 3 (LUC3) land.
A second bedroom at the property. Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel
A queen sized bed happily fits inside one of the bedrooms. Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel
However, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay said the government had decided to pause progress on a proposal to establish "Special Agricultural Areas".
Asked whether the volume of change would be too much for councils to keep up with, Bishop said the government had taken a phased approach to its reforms.
It started with scrapping Labour's reforms, then expanding the fast-track regime, then changing the national policy instruments, and finally the new legislation to replace the Resource Management Act.
"But change is always difficult. On the other hand, change has been required because we can't have a planning system that gums up progress ... I think it's now widely acknowledged that the RMA has been the source of considerable difficulties.
"It should not take that much time and money to consent basic energy and infrastructure, so that's why we're changing it."
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