Housing and Business Assessment monitoring

Hamilton City Council monitors housing and business development to help plan for future growth. We’re part of the Future Proof Partnership (FPP), which includes Hamilton City, Waikato District, Waipaa District, and Matamata-Piako District. Hamilton City Council is identified as a Tier 1 urban environment under the National Policy Statement for Urban Development (NPS-UD).

What is the Housing and Business Assessment?

Under the NPS-UD, Tier 1 councils must assess housing and business development capacity at least every three years. These assessments help councils understand:

how much land is available for new homes and businesses
whether infrastructure is in place to support development
how well planning rules enable future growth.

The latest assessment was prepared by Market Economics Limited (M.E) in collaboration with the FPP. It updates the original 2022 report.

Why this matters

Urban environments like Hamilton are growing faster than rural areas, creating unique challenges. The NPS-UD recognises that development must be supported by infrastructure and guided by sound planning.

This page shares key data from our monitoring of the Housing and Business Assessment (HBA), which looks at how much land and infrastructure is available for new homes and businesses across the city.

We’ll update this information regularly to ensure it reflects current trends and needs. You’ll find data about things like:
• how many homes are being built
• housing affordability and rental costs
• land availability for residential and business development
• where development is happening (infill vs greenfield).

This helps us and the community understand how Hamilton is growing and whether we’re meeting national planning requirements.

For more detail, you can explore the links and documents below.

	Year to June 2025
Dwellings completed	1245
Percentage of infill consenting	64%
Infill consenting activity	561 dwellings
Greenfield consenting activity	302 dwellings
Non-residential floor area granted	22,530m2
Median house price	$749,000
Median rent	$508 per week
Housing affordability (ratio of average values to average household income)	6.5
Rental affordability (proportion of household income spend on rent)	22%
Years of housing land available (zoned and serviced)	8.6 years
Years of business land available (zoned and serviced)	4.7 years
The demand for dwellings (30 years)	37,884
Sources: Hamilton City Council and Infometrics