Home of the Year 2026

Home of the Year is an annual programme that celebrates the country’s best new homes, and comes with a $10K prize for the overall winner.

Home of the Year is New Zealand’s highly regarded award for residential architecture, with categories to celebrate the best City Home of the Year, Small Home of the Year, Coastal Home of the Year, Rural Home of the Year, Green Home of the Year, Alt & Reno Home of the Year, and Multi-Unit Home of the Year, each of which recognises the specific nuances of architecture in different contexts.

Every category winner receives a video package worth $10,000 and an extensive media campaign, while the overall winner also receives a $10,000 cash prize.

The overall Home of the Year winner is awarded to a home that captures a particular cultural and architectural moment — a design that resonates beyond its physical form. At its core, it is the distillation of an idea: the alignment of a client’s aspirations with an architect’s vision, resolved into a piece of architecture that speaks both to its time and to something enduring.