Categorisation update – 19 February 2025

Welcome to our monthly update on recovery efforts since major storms in early 2023.

Categorisation

Overall, 3547 property owners have registered for the categorisation scheme. While registrations have now closed, the Recovery Office continues its work categorising remaining properties, guiding registered homeowners through the Category 3 buy-out and Category 2P mitigation process, and supporting affected households via the Navigation Service.

We are now over 87% of the way through categorisations, having confirmed category outcomes for 3055 properties (as of 19 February). Of these, 2917 have continued through the process to receive a category with 1008 are classed as Category 3 and eligible for a buy-out and 129 are eligible for construction grants to reduce the risk at their home.

This has been supported by a huge effort from our technical and engineering teams having completed over 3475 desktop assessments and 2664 site assessments. 

Most of homeowners still waiting for a category had registered for the programme more recently. However there are some homeowners that have been waiting for some time because their situation is more complicated, including the need to understand if a community or property mitigation will reduce the risk at their home to a reasonable level.

With registrations now closed, we expect to have confirmed all categorisations in the next few months, with the buy-out process continuing through the year, and our home removal programme into 2026.

See detailed categorisation tables further below.

Category 3 buy-outs

Now that registrations are closed, and we have completed over 3000 assessments, we have confirmed 1008 Category 3 homes.

862 Category 3 homeowners have received or accepted a buy-out valuation, and 550 properties had completed their sale and purchase agreements. With each situation being unique, we are working as flexibly as we can to support homeowners to make their decisions - while remaining fair across the programme.

We expect the number of Category 3 homes to reach over 1200, above our estimates, requiring additional funding. The majority of this can be reallocated within the council's $2 billion co-funding agreement with the government, a decision that is now pending Ministerial approval.

This represents a natural rebalancing of funding towards retreat over resilience, given the level of serious risk we are finding after last year’s storms.

Home removal and maintenance

Across Auckland we’ve removed over 100 high risk homes on Category 3 properties. We expect around 1200 homes will either be removed or the risk will be reduced at the property for the likes of multi-units.

The council’s panel of removal companies are currently working on clusters of homes or have completed the removal of homes in Muriwai, Rānui/Henderson/Swanson, Piha, Titirangi, Mt Eden, Epsom, Pukekohe, Grey Lynn, Milford, Kumeu and Waiwera, while work continues at one-off sites across the city. Early this year we will start on homes in Avondale, Blockhouse Bay and Murrays Bay/Browns Bay.

Relocation of the homes is the preferred option to reduce waste to landfill. Over 30% of the homes have been relocated so far, providing homes for families across the upper North Island. Deconstruction and reuse of the materials is the second preference if relocation isn’t possible, with most of the materials going to community recycling centres to be reused by local residents. In some cases demolition is the best option but we still try to salvage as much as we can.

Council-owned vacant land will be maintained to ensure a ‘kept look’ with a focus on maintaining areas visible from roads and footpaths (i.e. berms and front yards on properties that have road frontages). A budget of $39.4 million has been allocated over 10 years for ongoing maintenance including things like mowing and tree trimming. If you would like to report any maintenance issues please email recoveryoffice@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz or if you see any suspicious behaviour please report it to the police.

A policy guiding future land use for these properties will reach final signoff by the council's Policy and Planning Committee in a month or so. The aim is to repurpose land to the best use possible, with safety being the number one priority.

Recovery progress information

Categorisation progress (at 19 February 2025) 

Note: Not every home will need a site assessment, but some may need more than one

Categories confirmed (at 19 February 2025)

*​A small number of properties that have registered for the programme are ineligible, including those with vacant land, commercial/non-residential properties, or properties owned by public service providers. The programme is focused on addressing risk to life in residential situations. 

Category 3 buy-out progress (at 19 February 2025)

Categories by suburb (at 19 February)

*An additional 168 cases were ineligible or withdrawn