16/02/2026
We build accessible homes.
Not perfectly. Not at the scale this country needs. But guided by the realities of the very people who will live in them.
And still, we know this: building better homes on their own wonāt fix a housing system that keeps treating accessibility as optional.
Right now, in Aotearoa, public housing makes up just 4% of the total housing stock. And our Building Act doesnāt require private homes to be accessible. Thereās no legal requirement for private landlords and developers to build homes that meet universal or disability-friendly design standards.
So, accessibility becomes something people have to hope for.
And when something this fundamental is left to chance, the consequences show up everywhere.
We see it in disabled people staying in emergency housing longer than anyone intended.
We see it in more than 800 disabled people under 65 living in retirement villages because thereās nowhere else suitable to go.
We see it in whÄnau who have never experienced āhomeā as a place that feels safe. A place where they can just be who they are, without the walls deciding who they need to be.
This isnāt theoretical.
Itās daily life.
Other countries have chosen differently. The U.S. and Australia have stronger accessibility requirements built into how homes are designed and built. Here, accessible housing is still too often treated as an add-on, rather than a standard.
Research shows it costs around $1,700 to build Universal Design features into a new home. Retrofitting later can cost up to $14,000.
The myth is that accessibility is expensive.
The reality is that exclusion is.
Exclusion costs independence.
It costs dignity.
It costs whÄnau who are forced to reshape their lives around a house that doesnāt work.
It costs the public system when crisis housing becomes the only option left.
Weāll keep building. Weāll keep lifting our own standard. And weāll keep sharing what changes when a home works for someone, not against them.
But accessible housing canāt rely on goodwill.
Until accessibility is required by law, āhomeā will keep being something disabled people have to fight for.
