Summary of granny flats consultation feedback
Posted: 22 November 2024
The Government recently sought public feedback on options to make it easier to build granny flats.
For 8 weeks between June and August, MBIE and the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) ran the ‘Making it easier to build granny flats (2024)’ public consultation. The consultation looked at:
- options to enable granny flats to be built without needing a building or resource consent, so long as they met certain criteria, and
- the main goal of finding the balance between speed, safety, and risk to ensure New Zealanders have safe, healthy and durable homes, built as quickly as possible.
Summary of granny flat consultation feedback
Almost 2,000 submissions were received during the granny flat consultation, showing a strong public interest in its proposals.
There was particular interest from homeowners and those working in the building industry — with these groups representing a third of the responses.
While submitters generally supported the intent to make it easier to build granny flats, they indicated that changes should:
- lower the risk of building failure
- improve consumer protections
- fairly assign liability, and
- avoid environmental risks, for example from natural hazards.
You can find out more about the consultation feedback in the submissions report on the MBIE website.
Summary of submissions report — Making it easier to build granny flats consultation (2024) — mbie.govt.nz
What’s next now we have the feedback
Using the feedback received from the consultation, we will be developing further advice for the Government on the proposals to make it easier to build granny flats.
It is expected that the changes to the Building Act 2004 and the new National Environmental Standards for granny flats will both come into effect in 2025.
While this work is underway, we will also prepare the necessary resources for implementing the changes to the Building Act. This includes producing guidance material and other resources to support the understanding around building granny flats without needing a building or resource consent when it becomes law.