Citycare, PAE New Zealand to provide facilities maintenance services for NZ Defence Estate

Land
|
NZDF chief of Defence Force. Photo: NZDF

The New Zealand Defence Force has selected New Zealand-owned and operated companies Citycare and PAE New Zealand to provide crucial facilities maintenance services across the Defence Estate from mid-2026.

The New Zealand Defence Force has selected New Zealand-owned and operated companies Citycare and PAE New Zealand to provide crucial facilities maintenance services across the Defence Estate from mid-2026.

The new contracts represent a longterm investment of around $1 billion over 10 years and will see New Zealand businesses maintaining and supporting one of the countrys largest and most complex property portfolios.

Head of Defence Estate and Infrastructure, Mark Brunton, said the decision reflects a strong focus on value for money, resilience and building New Zealand capability.

 
 

“These contracts back local companies to do complex, essential work in highly specialised environments,” he said.

“They support jobs in our regions, grow skills here at home, and ensure the Defence Force has the infrastructure it needs to keep New Zealand secure.”

The Defence Estate includes nine camps and bases and associated sites across the country, covering more than 81,000 hectares and supporting more than 15,000 personnel.

Together, they function much like nine small towns, with residential, training, industrial, aviation, port and logistics infrastructure, as well as large weapons training areas.

The procurement was the first by the NZDF to apply the Government Procurement Rules (5th Edition, 2025), which include local economic benefit as a weighted evaluation criterion.

Both Citycare and PAE NZ will establish sitebased delivery teams across New Zealand, supported by local call centres and New Zealandbased leadership and management roles.

The companies have also committed to training and upskilling local workers, strengthening the skills pipeline in the facilities management and engineering sectors.

Brunton said the contracts were designed to ensure the longterm performance and resilience of Defence infrastructure.

“Maintaining the Defence Estate is complex, continuous work carried out in high security and operational environments. Everything from residential accommodation and training facilities through to operational airfields, ports and heavy-maintenance facilities needs to function reliably, every day,” he said.

“These contracts focus on core maintenance that directly supports the operational readiness of Defence personnel, including preventative and reactive maintenance, grounds services and minor works.

“This critical support gives the NZDF the flexibility to respond to changing operational demands.”

The new facilities maintenance services contracts will commence progressively between July and November 2026, as existing contracts expire.

Robert Dougherty

Robert is a senior journalist who has previously worked for Seven West Media in Western Australia, as well as Fairfax Media and Australian Community Media in New South Wales. He has produced national headlines, photography and videography of emergency services, business, community, defence and government news across Australia. Robert graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, Majoring in Public Relations and Journalism at Curtin University, attended student exchange program with Fudan University and holds Tier 1 General Advice certification for Kaplan Professional. Reach out via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or via LinkedIn.

Want to see more stories from trusted news sources?
Make Defence Connect a preferred news source on Google.
Click here to add Defence Connect as a preferred news source.

Tags: