New Zealanders struggling to rent a property on the private rental market are facing lengthy waits before they get the keys to a state house.

Figures released by the Ministry of Social Development under the Official Information Act show the longest wait for social housing in the six months to March was seven years and 36 days, while the average wait time was 144 days.

Ministry of Social Development social housing chief executive Carl Crafar said the circumstances of applicants facing the longest waits over the period changed while they were on the social housing register.

JACK MONTGOMERIE/FAIRFAX NZ There are a range of factors that affect how long someone remain on the social housing register.

The change in circumstances affected their priority and changed the time it took them to receive an offer of housing, Crafar said.

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"It is important to understand that the social housing register is not a time ranked waitlist, rather applicants assessed as being in the most urgent need will be matched to a property first."

SUPPLIED Kaikoura MP Stuart Smith said he fielded roughly one housing enquiry a month from people struggling to find a place to stay.

Crafar said he was not able to disclose further details about each case for privacy reasons, but each situation had a complex history.

There were a range of factors that affected how long someone remained on the social housing register, he said.

A client might change the region they want to live in, have specific housing requirements or seek to live in an area that had high demand.

"Additionally, when a client is offered suitable housing and they decline, this will result in a client remaining on the social housing register for a longer duration."

Placing people and families into a house was about matching them with the right house in the area that they wanted to live, Crafar said.

All applicants were contacted by Ministry of Social Development staff at least every 30 days.

Marlborough social housing wait times were not available as reporting was still in the development stage, he said.

Ministry of Social Development regional commissioner Janine Dowding said there was an increasing need for housing generally in Marlborough.

At the end of June, there were 48 applications for social housing in Marlborough up from 23 applications at the same time last year.

The increasing demand for social housing in Marlborough reflected a national increase, Dowding said.

The greatest demand in Marlborough and in the rest of the country was for one and two bedroom properties.

While clients occasionally turned down properties offered to them, there was an expectation that they could only decline a property for good reason.

This could include things like the property being too far away from a school or medical treatments, Dowding said.

If clients declined a property without a good reason they could be removed from the social housing register for up to 13 weeks, she said.

Kaikoura MP Stuart Smith said he fielded roughly one housing enquiry a month from people struggling to find a place to stay.

In most cases, they were able to be placed in a house in under a month, but one man faced an 18-month wait before he was able to secure a state house.

Smith said the man had health issues which meant the state house had to be modified before he was able to move in.