The waitlist for public housing is continuing its record-breaking rise, hitting 13,966 households at the end of September.

That was almost 800 more than the previous month and well over double the 5844 eligible families or individuals waiting at this point two years ago, when the Government was elected.

The Government has struggled to keep the waitlist from ballooning even as it has increased the rate of state house building significantly.

The September figures, released Friday, contained some good news. The median time it took the Government to get someone housed dropped from 126 days in August to 94 days in September.

The number of emergency motel stays granted has also flattened out, dropping to 3310 from 3344 the month prior.

But the Government is facing overwhelming demand. Almost 2000 new households were added to the waitlist in September, while only 538 were housed.

STUFF The amount of people on a waitlist for public housing has doubled.

The vast majority of those on the waitlist were deemed "priority A" or the most in need of housing - over 12,000.

Over 5000 applicants were in Auckland, but the need was not restricted to urban areas.

The East Coast and the Bay of Plenty both have around 1000 households on the waitlist, along with hundreds of motel stays granted.

The public housing waitlist is one of the more stark indicators of New Zealand's affordable housing crisis.

Rents have continued a steady rise upwards in recent years even after the house price boom in Auckland flattened out.

The Government has generally blamed the previous Government for the ballooning waitlist, noting that the net number of state houses reduced over its decade in power.

ANDY JACKSON/STUFF Public Housing Minister Kris Faafoi has said the waitlist is National's fault.

"The challenges of meeting demand for public housing places with increasing supply of those places will take time," Public Housing Minister Kris Faafoi said.

"A net increase of 353 public housing places in September is welcome and supports current forecasts which show 2,675 additional public housing places will be delivered in the 2019/20 year by Kainga Ora and community housing providers. "

"If National had been delivering at that rate we wouldn't be facing the waiting list numbers we're dealing with now. "

National's public housing spokesman Simon O'Connor said the Government has scared private landlords out of the market, which has increased demand.

"Higher rents I would suggest are a direct result of extra requirements that have been put on landlords, and the uncertainty that has been promoted by Labour," O'Connor said.

"They're increasing the cost and therefore it's not a surpise."

The Government's only serious new law for landlords thus far has been the banning of letting fees, along with tax changes that stop landlords using losses on one property to write off tax on others. Healthy Homes regulations do not come into force for several years, although an insulation requirement mandated by the previous Government did come into force in July.

O'Connor said it was the anticipation of the costs scaring landlords away.

"A lot of landlords just see it coming. They know it's coming so they've said 'stuff it' and stepped back form the market."

National has also pointed to the end of regular tenancy review for some tenants and a softer approach to evicting those behaving anti-socially as to blame.

O'Connor pledged to reinstate "tenancy review" if elected in 2020 earlier this week, and to look at whether Housing New Zealand should be broken up into a building arm and a landlord arm.