What a care home costs

The weekly cap

Every rest home and hospital has a cap on what it can charge for standard care. This cap is called the maximum contribution. It is the most a resident assessed as needing long-term care can be required to pay each week for contracted care services, and it includes GST (goods and services tax).

The Director-General of Health sets the maximum contribution for each region under section 53 of the Residential Care and Disability Support Services Act 2018. The current figures took effect on 1 July 2026 and replaced the previous notice, published in June 2025.

Three things about the cap are worth knowing:

• It is the same whatever level of care you need: rest home, hospital or dementia care.
• It applies whether you pay privately or receive the Residential Care Subsidy.
• It is equal to the rest home contract price in that region.

The cap in your district

From 1 July 2026, across district and city council areas, the weekly maximum contribution runs from $1,513.33 to $1,634.43.

Some isolated rural areas have their own rate, which is higher than the rate for the rest of their district. The notice lists these areas. Two examples are Wānaka Central/West at $1,617.35 a week and Wellsford/Cape Rodney at $1,632.33 a week. If a home is in one of these areas, that rate applies instead of the district rate.

Health New Zealand tells each home which rate applies to it, and the home tells its residents. Your NASC agency (the needs assessment service), Work and Income or the home itself can also tell you the rate.

What the cap pays for

Health New Zealand lists these as included:

• accommodation, meals, cleaning and laundry
• nursing and care
• doctor or nurse practitioner visits on admission, monthly, and whenever clinically needed
• all Pharmac-approved medicines and their packaging (Pharmac is the government agency that decides which medicines are publicly funded)
• dressings and treatment supplies
• continence products
• specified therapies: physiotherapy, speech therapy, podiatry and dietitian
• transport for health reasons.

The home also keeps being paid during short absences. For a subsidised resident, payments to the home continue for up to 14 days at a time, and up to 28 days in total in each Health New Zealand financial year, when you are away with family, whānau or friends. More days can be paid if the home gets Health New Zealand's agreement in advance. If you are in hospital, payments continue for up to 21 days, or longer if your NASC agency recommends it.

What costs extra

Anything outside the contract is called an Additional Service, and the home can charge for it on top of the cap. Health New Zealand's list of things you pay extra for includes:

• premium rooms
• private specialists
• the services of dentists and opticians
• personal items
• hairdressing
• entrance fees to shows and concerts.

The government's guidance on govt.nz says any such charge must be specified in your Admission Agreement, the contract you sign when you move in. Before you sign, ask for every extra charge to be written into it.

Premium rooms

A premium room has extra features of a permanent or fixed nature. A standard room does not have those features.

Health New Zealand says premium room fees of around $10 to $85 a day are common, and there is no public funding for them. Eldernet, an aged care information service, quotes a wider range of $5 to more than $100 a day.

The agreement between care homes and Health New Zealand requires homes to follow these rules:

• It must be your choice. A home cannot make a premium room a condition of moving in or staying. You must have a genuine choice.
• If no standard room is free. The home must generally still admit you to a premium room, and must not charge you for the premium room features. There are exceptions, so if a home says one applies, ask for the details in writing. Ask, too, what will happen when a standard room becomes free.
• You can step down later. If you chose a premium room, you can give notice to stop paying for the premium features 18 months after you were admitted, and every 6 months after that. The notice takes effect 6 months after you give it. If your finances change so that you can no longer meet the cost, the home must shorten that period to the extent reasonable. Ask whether stopping the premium features means moving to another room.

Questions to ask

• Which maximum contribution rate applies to this home?
• Is a standard room available now? If not, will I be charged premium fees while I wait?
• If a standard room becomes free, will I have to move or start paying?
• What makes this room premium, and what is the daily charge?
• If I stop paying for premium features, do I have to change rooms?
• What else will appear on my bill, and what does each item cost?
• Are all of these charges written into the Admission Agreement?
• How and when can the extra charges change?