All state houses may be tested for methamphetamine contamination when they become vacant, after a huge jump in affected houses in two years.
Housing NZ says it found only 28 meth-contaminated state homes in the year to June 2014, but 229 in the year to June 2015 and 279 in the second half of the year.
Chief operating officer Paul Commons said testing all state houses upon vacancy was "under consideration as we constantly review our procedures". But a decision will not be made quickly as the agency has only recently changed its focus from looking for P labs, where houses were used to make the drug, to testing homes where anyone was suspected of using it.
Auckland regional manager Diane Te Nana said the agency had a zero-tolerance approach to methamphetamine.
"If we have suspicion, we test, and that will be a reason for ending the tenancy," a spokesman said.