Infrastructure choices on the horizon

• New Zealand has more infrastructure projects in planning than it can afford to fund or deliver. This growing pool of options provides flexibility for investment to respond to changing future needs, but also requires careful prioritisation and clearer visibility of opportunity costs for infrastructure that is funded by central and local government.
• As of March 2025, the National Infrastructure Pipeline was tracking over 8,100 infrastructure initiatives, including more than 4,400 still in the planning stages. Nearly half the total value of these (around $96 billion) is unfunded, with most of the unfunded value concentrated in a small number of large land transport projects.
• The Pipeline provides visibility across sectors and regions, allowing decision-makers to view the timing, location, sector, cost and procurement status of upcoming infrastructure projects. This helps coordinate delivery, manage workforce constraints and align investment overtime.
• The Pipeline is particularly valuable after major shocks, such as natural disasters, where rebuilding must be sequenced, and delivery capacity is stretched. It also supports long-term coordination in areas with overlapping investments. The Infrastructure Priorities Programme (IPP) complements the Pipeline by independently assessing and offering endorsement for selected nationally important proposals for their readiness to proceed, using criteria like strategic alignment, value for money and deliverability.
• The first round of IPP assessments confirms that while there are promising proposals across sectors and regions, most are still early stage and require further development to ensure affordability and delivery readiness.
• IPP assessments are helping to raise the bar on project quality, by encouraging proponents to consider a range of cost-effective solutions, including low-cost and non-built options, to better manage affordability and fiscal pressures.
• Both the Pipeline and IPP are live, evolving tools, updated regularly as new data is provided. This creates an ongoing evidence base for sequencing, funding and coordination decisions across the system.