Minister of Housing (New Zealand)

The First Labour Government created the position of Minister in charge of Housing in 1938, to oversee the government's state housing agenda. Responsibility for housing was part of the Works portfolio for some years until the restoration of the Housing portfolio by the Second National Government in 1949.

Until the 1970s, the Housing portfolio was often held in conjunction with responsibility for the State Advances Corporation; the Corporation was dissolved and much of its responsibility transferred to the new Housing Corporation of New Zealand in 1974. In the 1990s, under the significant redistribution of responsibility that occurred following Jenny Shipley's appointment as Prime Minister, responsibility for housing issues was divided between three ministers: the Minister for Social Services, Work and Income; the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation of New Zealand; and the Minister responsible for Housing New Zealand.^[3] The Housing Corporation and Housing New Zealand merged into a single entity, Housing New Zealand Corporation, on 6 March 2002.^[3]

A separate Minister for Building Issues (later Minister for Building and Construction) was established by the Fourth Labour Government as the Ministry of Housing was expanded to become the Department of Building and Housing. Under the Fifth National Government, the government's focus shifted from providing state houses to providing "social houses," which meant that income-related rent subsidies could be paid to non-governmental community housing providers.^[4] While this Government had once combined social housing and building regulation responsibility in a combined "Building and Housing" portfolio, this was disestablished in December 2016 and divided between the Minister for Social Housing and the Minister for Building and Construction.^[5]

Following the 2017 election, the Labour-New Zealand First-Green coalition government revamped the portfolio as the Minister of Housing and Urban Development. Phil Twyford was appointed as Housing Minister.^[6] On 1 October 2018, Housing Minister Twyford launched a new government department called the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to advise the Government on housing and urban development issues.^[7][8] During a 2019 cabinet reshuffle the housing and urban development portfolio was split into three positions; appointing Megan Woods as Minister of Housing, Kris Faafoi as Associate Minister of Housing (for rentals), and Twyford as Minister of Urban Development.^[9] After the 2020 election Woods was confirmed as Minister of Housing while the urban development portfolio was abolished completely.^[10] In early 2021, the Labour government was criticised by the opposition government and some housing industry stakeholders, who said the government has failed to address New Zealand's out-of-control house prices.^[11]

Key

  Labour  National

No.		Name	Portrait	Term of office		Prime Minister
As Minister in charge of Housing
	1	Tim Armstrong		13 December 1938	8 November 1942†		Savage
							Fraser
As Minister in charge of Housing Construction
	2	Bob Semple		9 December 1942	December 1945		Fraser
1945–1949: See Minister of Works
	3	Stan Goosman		13 December 1949	9 September 1953		Holland
As Minister of Housing
	4	Bill Sullivan		9 September 1953	13 February 1957		Holland
	5	Dean Eyre		13 February 1957	26 September 1957
							Holyoake
	6	John Rae		26 September 1957	12 December 1957
	7	Bill Fox		12 December 1957	12 December 1960		Nash
	(6)	John Rae		12 December 1960	9 February 1972		Holyoake
							Marshall
	8	Eric Holland		9 February 1972	8 December 1972
	9	Bill Fraser		8 December 1972	10 September 1974		Kirk
							Rowling
	10	Roger Douglas		10 September 1974	12 December 1975
	11	George Gair		12 December 1975	8 March 1977		Muldoon
	(8)	Eric Holland		8 March 1977	13 December 1978
	12	Derek Quigley		13 December 1978	15 June 1982
	13	Tony Friedlander		15 June 1982	26 July 1984
	14	Phil Goff		26 July 1984	24 August 1987		Lange
	15	Helen Clark		24 August 1987	14 August 1989
							Palmer
	16	Jonathan Hunt		14 August 1989	2 November 1990
							Moore
	17	John Luxton		2 November 1990	29 November 1993		Bolger
	18	Murray McCully		29 November 1993	31 August 1998
							Shipley
1998–1999: See Minister for Social Services, Work and Income; Minister responsible for Housing New Zealand; Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation of New Zealand
	19	Mark Gosche		10 December 1999	12 May 2003		Clark
	20	Steve Maharey		12 May 2003 (acting) 19 May 2003	19 October 2005
	21	Chris Carter		19 October 2005	5 November 2007
	22	Maryan Street		5 November 2007	19 November 2008
	23	Phil Heatley		19 November 2008	22 January 2013		Key
	24	Nick Smith		22 January 2013	8 October 2014
As Minister for Building and Housing
	(24)	Nick Smith		8 October 2014	20 December 2016a		Key
							English
As Minister for Social Housing
	25	Paula Bennett		8 October 2014	20 December 2016a		Key
							English
	26	Amy Adams		20 December 2016	26 October 2017
As Minister of Housing and Urban Development
	27	Phil Twyford		26 October 2017	27 June 2019		Ardern
As Minister of Housing
	28	Megan Woods		27 June 2019	27 November 2023		Ardern
							Hipkins
	29	Chris Bishop		27 November 2023	present		Luxon

a. ^ ^ The Ministers for Building and Housing and Social Housing existed simultaneously during the period 8 October 2014 – 20 December 2016.