Building activity on public housing sites is back on track with nearly all 300 work sites across New Zealand expected to be up and running again.

Under the move to Level 3, 240 Kāinga Ora public housing work sites had builders back at work. Nearly 60 more sites will be operating again in the coming days.

'The Government wants to get the economy moving again and people back to work. Our house building programme creates jobs and homes, both of which are so essential at the moment,” says Housing Minister Megan Woods.

'Getting back to work is helping to keep cash flowing through to more than 100 build partners and contractors, and that has huge flow-on for the rest of the economy.

' Kāinga Ora has approximately 3000 state, market and affordable homes under construction valued at around $1.5 billion so this is a real boost to economic activity. Of this, around $530 million will be paid for construction work still to be delivered so that's a sizeable income stream still to make its way toward Kāinga Ora's build partners.

'The construction industry is one of the best multipliers of investment with every dollar spent estimated to deliver around three dollars in the wider economy.''

Of the 300 Kāinga Ora sites, about one third are in the Auckland region with another third in the Wellington region. The remainder are in Christchurch, Hamilton, and spread throughout other locations around the country.

Megan says as well as the homes currently being built, another 7,000 more are in the planning, feasibility and procurement stages, with more than 3000 to be contracted and have construction start in the next 12 months.

Residential building accounts for half of all construction in New Zealand and Kāinga Ora is a significant player, making up about seven percent of the residential build market.

'This is significant for not only helping to meet demand for quality homes, but also because it provides a valuable pipeline of work for thousands of people in the building sector and related industries like surveyors, architects and planners.

'As we recover from the impact of COVID-19 we recognise how important it is for the economy to get as much activity going as possible, so Kāinga Ora will be ensuring a greater volume of housing development gets underway as soon as possible.

'The Kāinga Ora restart also sends a signal to the whole industry that it's time to pick up the tools again."