Councils and Community Organisations
Housing Innovation Fund (HIF)
About the Housing Innovation Fund (HIF)
The Housing Innovation Fund was set up to foster collaboration between government and community organisations in order to provide more housing for New Zealanders on low to moderate incomes or with special housing needs.
The HIF provides community housing providers and Iwi / Māori organisations with funding to build or buy community rental housing and to provide for affordable home ownership opportunities. Housing New Zealand administers the HIF on behalf of the New Zealand Government.
The Housing Innovation Fund budget of $20 million is split between a general Housing Innovation Fund and a Māori Demonstration Partnership fund.
The following types of funding are available:
- Term loan — a 25-year term loan, with the first 10 years being interest free. This allows a borrower to increase capital repayments during the first 10 years, significantly increasing loan equity and making the remaining 15-year term loan repayments more affordable.
- Housing grant — a grant of a maximum 33 per cent of a project’s capital value. A housing grant may be provided in conjunction with a term loan and only after the term loan has been drawn down in full.
Allocation of funding for successful applicants is based on an organisation’s ability to fund the project with a term loan, or the organisation’s ability to fund the project with a mix of term loan and grant.
Grant only funding will be considered if all other options for funding have been exhausted.
Housing Innovation Fund information:
- Eligibilty for HIF funding
- Submission criteria for HIF
- "Housing Innovation Fund Submission Form 2010" (Word Document, 403kb)
- "Housing Innovation Fund - Guidelines for assessing eligibility" (PDF Document, 170kb)
- Regional workshops
About the Māori Demonstration Partnership
Māori Demonstration Partnerships enable the development of affordable Māori housing and sustainable communities, and facilitates housing on Māori owned land.
Māori Demonstration Partnerships have different eligibility and assessment criteria than the Housing Innovation Fund, which includes:
- applicants must be iwi/Māori organisations or have clear links to Māori communities, provide services for Māori and be majority Māori owned or governed.
- applicants must have a proven record as an existing provider, or have the ability to provide housing related services.
- applicants must have the ability to partner with Housing New Zealand by making at least a 50 per cent contribution of Māori land, capital or housing to their project.
Māori Demonstration Partnership documents:
- Eligibility for Maori Demonstration Partnership funding
- Submission criteria for Maori Demonstration Partnership funding
- "Maori Demonstration Partnership Submission Form 2010" (Word Document, 391kb)
- "Housing Innovation Fund - Guidelines for assessing eligibility" (PDF Document, 170kb)
- Regional workshops
