There have been plenty of winners in today's Budget, but one of the big losers has been the housing portfolio.

Apart from $283 million for transitional housing, and $197 million to boost emergency housing, there's not much in budget 2019.

One thing in particular stands out is the Government's flagship housing policy KiwiBuild, which has not received any additional funding.

Housing Minister Phil Twyford has said that the policy will be "re-calibrated" after struggles to meet housing targets and sell what has been built. However, Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan told Heather du Plessis-Allan that this demonstrates how much of a failure KiwiBuild has been. 

Kiernan says that the policy could still survive even without limited funding, as it never had that much money in the first place. 

"Most of those houses were being built already and Phil Twyford's just put a sticker on a house and said it's a KiwiBuild house."

He says he would be happy if no more money went towards KiwiBuild. The lack of budget funding isn't the first sign that the policy could be on the out, with the removal of the targets indicating a backpedal from the policy. 

"Transitional housing and emergency housing, I think that's a much better approach for the housing issues that we have."