Quick answer
A Kāinga Ora kitchen gets approved on the details, not the look. The reviewer checks bench height at 900mm off the finished floor, a 600mm deep top with an anti-spill edge, a 30 LRV contrast between top and cabinet fronts, and a 304 stainless wet bench with an integral bowl. Miss one and it comes back as a remake, not a tweak.
Key points
- Bench height is 900mm from the finished floor, not the substrate, so the flooring build-up has to be in the number before anything is made.
- The wet bench is a single 304 stainless pressing with an integral bowl, and a drop-in bowl in a laminate top is an automatic reject.
- Cabinet fronts are white gloss, doors are 18mm with 2mm PVC edging rather than melamine tape, and no door is wider than 450mm.
- Layout rules catch people out: the stove is never under a window, and the fridge space stays open on one side with no cabinetry housing and no end wall.
- Getting these right on the drawings is the difference between one approval and three rounds of revise-and-resubmit.
The kitchen that gets signed off.
The kitchen looks fine on the bench. It gets rejected anyway, because the wet bench is a drop-in bowl sitting in a laminate top, and the Kāinga Ora requirement is an integral bowl pressed into a single sheet of 304 stainless. That is not a tweak. That is a remake, the QA sign-off slips a week, and it lands on your coordinator, not the joiner who built it wrong.
These are the kitchen details Kāinga Ora checks against its design requirements, currently issued as Ngā Paerewa Hoahoa Whare, version 2.1 at the time of writing. Requirements get revised, so read them against the version stapled to your contract rather than this article. What follows is which details get a kitchen approved first time, and which ones quietly send it back to the workshop.
The dimensions the reviewer checks first
Bench height is 900mm, and it is measured from the finished floor, not the particleboard subfloor. That distinction is where most height failures come from. If the joiner sets 900mm off the substrate and then the vinyl and its underlay go down, the finished bench sits eight to twelve millimetres high, and it fails the check even though the cabinet was built to a number. The flooring build-up has to be in the height before the carcass is cut.
The benchtop is 600mm deep with an anti-spill edge: a front profile that keeps a spill on the bench instead of running onto the floor, with an upstand at the wall junction. Six hundred deep sounds obvious until a tight galley tempts someone to shave it to 550 to widen the walkway. Do that and the top is non-compliant, the appliances no longer sit flush, and it comes back. Bench heights and depths for compact plans are covered in standard kitchen sizes and layouts for NZ townhouse developments, which reads across directly to social housing.
Contrast and colour
KO wants the benchtop and the cabinet fronts to differ by at least 30 points of Light Reflectance Value, the LRV. It is an accessibility requirement: an older tenant or someone with low vision needs to see where the bench ends and the cupboard begins, and a 30 LRV gap makes that edge readable. Social housing carries a lot of tenants for whom that contrast is the difference between a safe kitchen and a hazard, so the reviewer takes it seriously.
The fronts are white gloss, which sits high on the LRV scale, so the benchtop has to be dark enough to open the 30-point gap. That means choosing the benchtop laminate to the contrast, not just to what looks tidy in the sales folder. A pale stone-look top against white-gloss doors can fail the contrast even though it photographs well. Pick the top for the LRV first, the look second.
The wet bench and what sits under it
The wet bench is grade 304 stainless with an integral bowl, pressed into the sheet, not a separate bowl dropped into a laminate top. The reason is durability and hygiene in a rental: an integral pressing has no seam at the bowl to fail, no silicone line to grow mould, and it takes years of hard use without lifting. A drop-in bowl in laminate is the classic reject, and on the pricing side it matters too, because the schedule pays for a single 304 integral line, covered in pricing kitchens to the Kāinga Ora Schedule of Rates.
Under that sink goes a cupboard with child-resistant catches, because that is where the cleaning chemicals live. The catches have to be fitted, not just supplied loose in a bag for someone to install later. A reviewer opens the under-sink door, and if it swings free the kitchen is not signed off. It is a small part with an outsized ability to hold up an approval.
Doors, drawers and edges
Doors are 18mm, edged in 2mm PVC. Not melamine tape. This is the cheapest thing a reviewer checks and one of the fastest rejects, because iron-on melamine tape lifts at the corners within a year of a rental's use, while glued 2mm PVC stays put. A joiner used to selling budget rentals will reach for tape out of habit, and it fails on sight. The edging is the tell that separates a kitchen built for KO from one built down to a price.
No door is wider than 450mm. A wide door sags on its hinges over time and swings out into a narrow galley where nobody has room for it, so the requirement caps the width to keep the doors stable and the walkway clear. The drawer bank is a specific stack: two small drawers over two large, with a cutlery insert in the top drawer. Four equal drawers with no insert is not the same thing, and it comes back.
| Detail | Approved | Sent back |
|---|---|---|
| Bench height | 900mm off the finished floor | Set off the subfloor, proud once vinyl is down |
| Benchtop | 600mm deep, anti-spill edge | Shaved to 550 to widen a galley |
| Wet bench | 304 stainless, integral bowl | Drop-in bowl in a laminate top |
| Contrast | 30 LRV gap to white-gloss fronts | Pale top, no readable edge |
| Door edging | 2mm PVC, glued | Iron-on melamine tape |
| Door width | 450mm maximum | A 600 door that sags and blocks the run |
| Drawer bank | 2 small over 2 large, cutlery insert | Four equal drawers, no insert |
| Stove | Clear of any window | Hob set under the window |
| Fridge space | Open one side, no housing, no end wall | Fridge boxed in cabinetry or an end wall |
| End panels | None fixed | Decorative fixed end panel |
Layout rules that catch people out
The stove is never under a window. Reaching over a hot element to open or close a window is the hazard, and curtains near a flame make it worse, so the hob has to sit clear of the glazing. This one gets missed when a small plan has only one sensible run of bench and someone drops the hob wherever it fits. If the only wall for the hob is under the window, the layout is wrong and needs reworking, not signing off.
Two rules that fail QA on their own.
The fridge space stays open on one side. No cabinetry housing around the fridge, no end wall boxing it in. Two reasons sit behind it: the tenant brings their own fridge in social housing, so the space has to take whatever size turns up, and an open side gives the airflow a fridge needs to run efficiently. For the same reason there are no fixed end panels. A decorative end panel closes off the run, adds cost KO is not paying for, and boxes in the very space that is meant to stay open. Leave the run open and unpanelled.
Half the KO rejects I see aren't quality problems. They're a joiner building a good rental kitchen to the wrong rulebook, and the wet bench and the edge tape give it away every time.
What goes wrong
The rejections are seldom about bad workmanship. They come from building a perfectly good kitchen to a general rental spec instead of the KO one, and the details that catch it out are always the same handful.
- Bench height set off the subfloor, so it sits proud of 900mm once the flooring is down.
- A drop-in sink in a laminate top instead of a 304 integral pressing, which is an automatic remake.
- Melamine edge tape on the doors in place of 2mm PVC, spotted in seconds by a reviewer.
- A benchtop chosen for looks that misses the 30 LRV contrast against white-gloss fronts.
- The hob dropped under the only window because the plan was tight and nobody flagged it.
- The fridge boxed in with cabinetry or an end panel, so it will not take the tenant's own fridge.
- Child-resistant catches supplied loose rather than fitted and tested on the under-sink door.
What to check before it goes to KO
- The finished floor level and flooring build-up confirmed, so 900mm is measured off the right datum.
- The wet bench specified as a 304 stainless integral pressing, in writing, with no drop-in option.
- The benchtop laminate checked for a 30 LRV gap against the white-gloss fronts before it is ordered.
- Door edging specified as 2mm PVC, and no door drawn wider than 450mm.
- The drawer bank drawn as two small over two large with a cutlery insert in the top drawer.
- The hob clear of any window and the fridge space open one side, no housing, no fixed end panel.
Approve the type once, then repeat it
Getting a KO kitchen approved is not about building it better than anyone else. It is about building it to the right rulebook, so the reviewer finds nothing to send back. The details that trip people are consistent, which is good news: fix them once on the approved type and every unit that repeats it clears QA the same way. That is the whole argument for keeping kitchen spec consistent across your units and for value engineering without cheapening the build so the savings never come out of the compliant details.
MTN Kitchens builds to the KO spec out of our East Tāmaki workshop, supply and install under one contract, ten-plus kitchens a week. We know which details the reviewer checks first because we build them every week. Send the unit types and the requirements version you are working to, and we will spec the kitchens to pass first time, plus GST. For the wider job of repeating them across a site, read delivering identical kitchens across a KO development, and for the money side, pricing kitchens to the Kāinga Ora Schedule of Rates.
Frequently asked questions
What bench height does Kāinga Ora require, and off what datum?
The requirement is 900mm, measured from the finished floor, not the subfloor. That datum matters because the flooring build-up, the vinyl and its underlay, lifts the finished floor above the substrate. A bench set to 900mm off the particleboard ends up proud once the floor goes down, and it fails the check. Confirm the finished floor level before the cabinets are cut, and always read the height against the version of the requirements in your contract.
Can I use a drop-in sink instead of an integral stainless bowl?
No. The Kāinga Ora requirement is a 304 stainless wet bench with an integral bowl pressed into the sheet, and a drop-in bowl in a laminate top is a standard reject. The integral pressing has no seam at the bowl to fail and no silicone line to grow mould, which is why it is specified for a rental that has to last. It is also priced as a single line on the Schedule of Rates, so a drop-in is neither compliant nor fully recoverable.
What is the 30 LRV contrast rule and why does it exist?
LRV is Light Reflectance Value, a measure of how much light a surface reflects. Kāinga Ora asks for at least a 30-point difference between the benchtop and the cabinet fronts so the edge of the bench is easy to see. It is an accessibility requirement, aimed at older tenants and those with low vision, for whom a readable bench edge is a safety matter. With white-gloss fronts sitting high on the scale, the benchtop has to be dark enough to open the gap.
Why can't the fridge have cabinetry around it or an end panel?
Because in social housing the tenant usually brings their own fridge, so the space has to accept whatever size arrives, from a small bar fridge to a large family unit. A cabinetry housing or a fixed end wall locks the opening to one size and blocks the airflow a fridge needs. Leaving the space open on one side, with no housing and no fixed end panel, keeps it flexible and is what the requirements call for.
Is melamine edge tape ever acceptable on a KO kitchen door?
Not where the requirements call for 2mm PVC edging, which is the standard for KO doors. Iron-on melamine tape lifts at the corners within a year of a rental's use, while glued 2mm PVC stays put, so a reviewer treats tape as a fail on sight. It is one of the quickest rejects there is. Specify 18mm doors with 2mm PVC edging and confirm the joiner is not substituting tape to save a few dollars.