Key content this month

- Keeping people safe at our sites/offices – vaccine policy

- Preferred supplier panels RFPs for engineers and architects

- Annual satisfaction survey

We start 2022 with our continued focus on scaling up our build programme to provide healthy, warm and dry homes for New Zealanders.

Following a consultation and feedback process, we have recently announced the introduction of a vaccine policy for workers on construction, retrofit, remedial and civils work sites where Kāinga Ora owns or controls the land, as well as anyone entering Kāinga Ora offices or our customers’ homes for work purposes.

This means that these workers will need to be double vaccinated by 21 March to enter work sites. In addition, anyone who visits a Kāinga Ora office for work purposes must be double vaccinated by 21 February. While we understand that, for some, this may cause challenges in the short term, the decision reflects our desire to do what we can to keep our internal people, as well as our external partners, suppliers and consultants, safe when undertaking work on behalf of Kāinga Ora.

The timeframes for first and second vaccine doses, as well as the proposed process for implementation, have been sent to affected parties. While the vast majority of eligible New Zealanders are already vaccinated, you may encounter some staff members who are vaccine hesitant.

To help support positive conversations about the vaccine, CHASNZ has collated some great resources, which you can find here. If you have any questions about the policy, please get in touch with your Kāinga Ora contact.

As a member of the Construction Sector Accord, we are committed to improving the way the building sector operates. Developing close, genuine partnerships with partners, consultants and suppliers is critical to improving contracting arrangements, providing more certainty of work, and allowing a wider focus on social and environmental outcomes. We launched our RFP for Engineers to the Contract in December and received a good response. Next in line are Architects followed by Building Engineering Services.

Finally, a reminder to our market home builder partners to please fill in the Urban Design Panels Team annual satisfaction survey by Friday 18 February. We are always looking for ways we can learn and improve our processes.

Supplier Panels – RFPs for Architects and Engineers

In our last bulletin, we noted that important changes are coming to the way Kāinga Ora works with architects and engineers, with the establishment of preferred supplier panels.

• The RFP for Architects, including Urban Design and Landscape Architects, will be released in late February 2022 through GETS and Tenderlink with a six week response window. 
• The RFP for Building Engineering Services RFP will be released in early March followed by the Engineering Services RFP in early April both through GETS and Tenderlink with a six week response window.

After the RFPs are released, we encourage you to join us for supplier briefing webinars about the benefits of joining each panel, and criteria for selection. Questions welcome.

Visit our procurement webpage for further information or email procurement@kaingaora.govt.nz

Annual satisfaction survey – large scale projects

On Monday 14 February, we sent the Kāinga Ora Urban Design Panels Team annual satisfaction survey to our market home builder partners, and you still have time to provide feedback by Friday 18 February. The survey will help us track progress regarding the Auckland Housing Programme design review process. This relates to market and affordable housing projects within Northcote, Mangere, Roskill and Oranga large-scale development projects.

Our goal is to make the design review process as quick, easy and supported as possible. This survey will be a measuring tool to help us gauge how we’ve been doing, and how we can do better. If you have any questions in the meantime, please contact the panels team at designreview@kaingaora.govt.nz.

RFP open for lifecycle carbon assessment software

As an organisation committed to a low carbon future, we’re continuing to look for ways to reduce the carbon footprint of our new build programme. We currently have a Request for Proposal open, to procure technology that enables rapid, whole-of-building, whole-of-life lifecycle carbon assessments and reporting on emissions for our new building projects. This technology will help us measure and report on emissions and enable better design choices to reduce emissions from our construction programme.

If your organisation has capability, capacity and experience in this area, and would like to make a difference alongside New Zealand’s biggest residential developer, please submit your interest before 2 March 2022 at: GETS | Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities - RFP Carbon Neutral Housing - Measurement and Reporting (Construction)

Green light for ambitious Auckland development

An ambitious public housing development in Avondale, Auckland, has recently been granted resource consent. The large site between Elm Street and Racecourse Parade will provide 166 new public homes within seven buildings, ranging from six to seven levels.

The development, which is part of the Kāinga Ora Carbon Neutral Housing Pilot Programme, is expected to be completed by mid-2025. The buildings will be constructed using cross-laminated timber, enabling us to reduce embodied carbon emissions within the development.

At Elm Street, the new, warm and dry one-to-three-bedroom apartments will provide homes for individuals and small-to-medium-sized families. One building will provide 16 apartments that meet our Universal Design requirements. The development will include a multi-purpose community room, as well as off-street parking and a shared green space and vegetable garden.

The existing dwellings at Elm Street were removed by our contractor TROW Group as part of a deconstruction pilot programme. Approximately 90 percent of uncontaminated materials were reused or recycled rather than being sent to landfill, exceeding our 80 percent uncontaminated waste diversion target for Auckland public housing developments.

Kāinga Ora purchases site from Eke Panuku

Kāinga Ora has bought a 2000m² site in New Lynn from Eke Panuku Auckland for a mixed-use development. The site at 18 Totara Avenue has been of local interest for many years given the heritage status of the OAG’s Building located on the property. As part of the development agreement with Eke Panuku, the façade of the OAG’s Building will be retained, forming part of the frontage of a proposed state-of-the art nine-storey, mixed-use building. Once complete, the development is expected to include approximately 80 homes on the upper levels and commercial space on the ground floor. The target completion date is mid to late 2025.

Hands-On House Building Opportunities for Students

Students from Nelson and Rotorua are now working to construct warm, dry houses to be relocated to Kāinga Ora land for people and families in need of a home.

Senior students at Rotorua Boys’ High School will build at least two houses for Kāinga Ora. Apprentices at the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology Limited (NMIT) in the Level 3 pre-trade carpentry and level 4 apprentice carpentry programme will build four architecturally designed, two-bedroom houses at the NMIT Richmond Campus.

These trade academy programmes allow rangatahi an opportunity to gain experience and skills in the trades during their school year, while working under the supervision of registered builders and teachers. The programmes also benefit the wider community and economy, growing a pipeline of young people with trade skills and real-world working experience.

Kāinga Ora Programme Director Delivery Nick Seymour said the Building Academies open doors for rangatahi.

“The Building Academy partnerships are more than building homes. We are contributing to providing opportunities to our young people as they consider their future beyond high school. The programme not only provides practical experience, it also provides real-time experience of a what a work day in the trades is like, as well as exposure to health and safety protocols, and working as a team of individuals with the shared goal of completing a brand new whare.”

Kāinga Ora trades training and building academies programmes

We currently have 10 high schools, polytechnics and corrections facilities involved in our trades training and building academies programmes nationwide. Each partnership is delivering between two to five public homes for Kāinga Ora per year. Once complete, we aim to relocate the finished homes within a 50 to 100km radius.

We currently have partnerships with Rotorua Boys’ High School, Onehunga High School, Dargaville High School and Massey High School In addition, we are partnering with the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, Unitec Institute of Technology, WelTec (Wellington Institute of Technology) and Iconiq Construction Building Academy as well as two Corrections facilities.

Minister of Housing Megan Woods visited Massey High School Year 12 and 13 Building Academy students in July 2020.