Housing Unaffordability

Housing Unaffordability

The reason that housing in Auckland is so unaffordable, especially for young working people as my article points out, is demonstrably NOT a lack of zoned land but due to factors that our society is presently in almost complete denial about.  

These include:

1. Low average wages (25% lower than in the early 1980s).
2. Land-banking by land developers and speculators.
3. The cost of building materials which due to monopolistic  practice means the costs of building per square metre in Auckland are some of the highest in the world.
4. The Government’s failure to build state (Kainga Ora)  houses.
5. The removal of the once standard financial assistance to  first home buyers such as state-backed, low interest mortgages and the ability of young families to cash in family benefits.

I believe improved housing affordability and a reduction in the costs of associated civic and transport infrastructure could be achieved by the following policies:

1. Taxing undeveloped/land-banked residentially zoned  land.
2. Increasing the availability of building materials and  breaking the long-standing monopoly stranglehold on  these.
3. Building state houses on the zoned undeveloped land  across Auckland (and New Zealand) that Kaianga Ora is presently sitting on.
4. Diverting more of the accommodation supplement away  from subsidising rents (and therefore private landlords) to provide long-term, low interest loans to first home buyers.
5. House the street homeless. Many of the destitute homeless  have serious physical and mental health issues – they therefore not only need a home but essential specialised wrap-around medical care. The present wilful neglect of these people left to sleep on our streets through the coldest of winters is an indictment of our current political system.
6. Finally — re-establishing a contemporary version of  the Ministry of Works, employing the best technical and commercial minds to review and reform presently wasteful and incompetent council and central government procurement regimes to ensure rigorous value for money and timely completion of infrastructure projects.

Most of the above were once standard policies, many of which were pioneered in this country. These gave post-war New Zealand one of the highest standards of living in the world. To achieve them would mean our politicians breaking with the 30-year neo-liberal consensus which currently has them in a stranglehold. A new approach is desperately needed to turn around a country in decline. Affordable housing is absolutely fundamental to this.

Mike Lee, Councillor for Waitematā & Gulf

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