Major announcement: New Zealand Government confirms sweeping reform of a long-criticised law! Will homes be built faster?

Yesterday afternoon (15 November), New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson announced that the Government had finally decided on a thorough and comprehensive overhaul of the long-criticised Resource Management Act (RMA), aiming to speed up resource consent approvals, build more homes faster and better protect the country's natural environment.

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What will this mean for developers and home buyers? Here is what you need to know.

Associate Environment Minister Kiri Allan, Housing Minister Megan Woods, Environment Minister David Parker and Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson jointly announced that the Government would comprehensively reform New Zealand's Resource Management Act RMA

 

The widely criticised RMA

 

Many people are unhappy with the RMA. Some even call it a 'stumbling block to new housing supply' and 'one of the main reasons people cannot afford homes'.

 

The RMA has been in force for more than 30 years. Originally introduced by former Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer, it was groundbreaking when enacted in 1991 and was intended to facilitate development while protecting the environment.

 

Over time, however, it has become cumbersome and inflexible, failing to keep pace with changing needs. It no longer fulfils either of these key tasks and instead creates considerable difficulties for those in the industry.

 

Developers and council planners know this well: the RMA often makes simple projects unnecessarily complicated, expensive and prone to litigation.

 

New Zealand Environment Minister David Parker said: 'The current system is broken. It takes too long, costs too much, has not adequately enabled development and has not protected the environment.'

 

'The existing system has made housing more expensive and contributed to housing shortages.'

 

 

Reform is therefore urgently needed. On 15 November, bills to replace the Resource Management Act (RMA) were formally introduced to Parliament.

 

The new legislation will streamline the many cumbersome tasks involved in building developments, reduce annual processing costs by nearly NZ$150,000,000, and is expected to speed up approvals for new housing and infrastructure projects.

 

The Environment Minister described the new legislation in three words:'Faster, cheaper, better'。

 

He described the reform as long overdue, saying it would help councils manage their planning departments more efficiently.

 

For developers, this will mean lower development costs, more flexible processes and shorter waits for consent.

 

For home buyers, it will mean more affordable house prices and a wider choice of properties in future.

 

Three new pieces of legislation

 

The RMA is to be replaced by a principal piece of legislation, the Natural and Built Environments Act (NBA), alongside two supporting pieces of legislation: the Spatial Planning Act (SPA) and the Climate Adaptation Act (CAA). The Government aims to pass the two bills into law at next year's election.

 

 

YIJU understands that the reform also targets 'nimbyism'—opposition to new homes being built near where people live—and rules that drive rapid increases in land prices.

 

It also includes major changes to land-use and resource consent rules. The Government will establish 15 regional planning committees comprising central government, local government and Māori representatives, replacing the current system of more than 100 district plans.

 

The Government expects the changes under the new system to include:

Resource consent applications will be approved much faster. Clear new policies will also require housing supply to exceed anticipated market demand and restrictions to avoid pushing up land prices, helping provide more homes and affordable housing options.

 

Councils will have fewer resource consent applications to process, with most decisions made at the earlier planning stage. This will effectively reduce processing times at the resource consent application stage.

 

Central government will have greater powers to enable more building activity and reduce cost increases caused by delays at the building consent application stage.

 

The new rules will also give councils stronger powers to enforce regulations and compliance.

 

Māori will have decision-making roles at national, regional and local levels. This includes establishing a new national body to monitor performance in implementing the Treaty of Waitangi and advise on the national planning framework, which covers water and air quality as well as infrastructure construction and development.

 

The new Natural and Built Environments Bill will inherit most of the RMA's powers to protect, restore and enhance the environment in areas such as estuaries and coastlines, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect human health.

 

It is estimated that the laws could take 10 years to be fully implemented.

 

Responses to the reform

Wellington developer Stephen Sutorius

 

Developer representative Stephen Sutorius, whose company Thames Pacific has five developments in and around Wellington, welcomed the move to reduce more than 100 planning areas to 15 regions. He said that a decade ago, Sydney had multiple councils, each with its own planning policies. After they merged, developers had greater scope to develop land across a wider area. He believes the changes will be beneficial in the long run, provided they do not make things more complicated.

 

The Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA) also welcomed the reform. Alan McDonald, EMA's head of strategy and advocacy, said he was pleased that sectors responsible for development and infrastructure could have input into the Spatial Planning Act. Originally, these plans could only be developed by committees comprising central government, local government and iwi. Now, the committees must consult business representatives, ensuring their voices are heard and the public's interests are reflected in the plans. However, he also wanted a longer public consultation period for legislation so important to New Zealand's future development, giving everyone enough time to consider the issue properly.

 

New Zealand Planning Institute (NZPI) chief executive David Curtis said the organisation supported the changes. 'The new system places greater emphasis on getting things right in planning, rather than leaving major decisions to individual resource consent assessments. The focus on planning for resource development should give developers greater certainty, making it easier to proceed in the right direction while protecting the natural environment. That is the purpose of the reform.' He also stressed the importance of monitoring how the reform performs, with planners facing the challenge of bridging the gap between policy and practice. He said NZPI was disappointed that the Climate Adaptation Act had not been introduced to Parliament alongside the two bills, because the CAA was equally important. 'Being better prepared to adapt to climate change and natural hazard risks, and better controlling the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, is one of the Government's five reform objectives. Yet we still do not know what the legislation intended to achieve that objective will contain.'

Opposition parties also offered their assessments.

 

National Party leader Christopher Luxon said National supported RMA reform, but he was 'highly sceptical' that the Government's proposed changes would improve the situation. He believed the proposed reforms could instead add bureaucracy and complexity. He wanted a simpler set of standards to guide development while ensuring the environment was protected.