Auckland's Mayor Len Brown is talking up 2014 as a "bumper" year for building consents in Auckland.
Speaking at an event to mark the start of construction of Brickworks, Auckland’s latest apartment development, at Hobsonville Point this morning, Brown said he expected about 7000 new homes to be consented in the region this year.
This would compare with the 6300 new houses consented in Auckland last year.
The number of houses constructed in Auckland dipped sharply after the global financial crisis, hitting a trough of under 3500 in 2009. The most recent peak of activity in any calendar year was the more than 12,000 consented in 2004.
Auckland has targeted 39,000 new houses/sections over a three year period after the signing last year of the Auckland Housing Accord. The accord targeted 9000 houses/sections in the first year of operation of the accord, though as this didn't start till the final quarter of last year the projections are not for calendar years.
Brown said it was clear that Auckland was entering a growth phase for Auckland home building.
"Over the next few years Aucklanders will see a lot more building activity across the region, with a good mix of apartments, terraced houses and standalone houses.
"This boost in residential construction has been helped by strong economic growth, greater certainty for developers and improvements to the council’s consenting processes.
"I have been really impressed by the work of our consenting teams. Although volumes are much higher than previous years, the building and resource consent teams have continued to perform at 95% at least, of consents processed within statutory timeframes."
He said that resource consents continue to increase – up from 12,000 in 2011/2012, 13,000 in 2012/2013 and at the current growth, expected to increase to 14,000+ in 2013/2014.
The resource consents issued will result in a significant increase in new dwellings over the next years with more than 20,000 new lots approved as part of resource consents issued in the last 6 months, he said.
He pointed out that apartments were becoming a larger proportion of new homes.
"In December alone in Auckland consents were granted for 397 new apartments. Over the last six months, consents for 1918 new apartments were granted."
9 Comments
Len Brown is in la-La land if he thinks that 7000 consents will do anything to alleviate the housing shortage.
Consents are one thing, actual builds are another. It's doubtful if half the consents will end up as houses or apartments actually on the ground.
Furthermore how many houses ar demolished each year? It is very common for a house to be pulled down and replaced with two new ones, so the net gain is not two, but one.
On top of that Auckland's population is increasing by over 22,000 people per annum so the around 8500 new houses will be needed just to stand still.
“Over the past five years the Auckland region's population has increased by an average 22,600 people a year..."
link:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/9055539/Auckland-needs-54-building-boost
Until Auckland actually builds around 15,000 houses per year, every year for years, will there be any chance to ever catch up.
Hello NZ
If the Auckland needs a few more houses,why increase interest rates.
Is that the smartest thing to do,bring out the big hammer.
Selling building supplies,the average punter is using the banks money to buy everything
on there wish list.
So this new building boom has to be kick started on low interest rates.
If you want the little Ma n Pa kettles to sign up for a new something,they need to be able to pay it back.
The building boom could stall,an they would have to bring rates down even lower
to really kick start things.
Your question needs to be rephrased
The Reserve Bank and Allan Bollard implemented an emergency reduction in interest rates of 50 bps to their current all time low, immediately after the Christchurch earthquakes. The benefits of that reduction were nationwide not just Christchurch.
So, with interest rates at an all time low, why hasnt that generated the building boom in AUCKLAND you seek, or do you require lower rates still, or would you propose regional segmentation of interest rates, lower in Auckland and higher everywhere else except Christchurch
In other words targetting the incentives
Logically, if the emergency interest rate reduction didnt generate a boom, then reversing the reduction wont kill off the boom that didnt happen. And conversely, reducing interest rates further, wont produce a "magic" boom either.
Accord arithmetic: the original goal was 39,000 homes built in three years which became 39,000 homes consented in three years. If the original target was 9,000 consents issued in the first year of the accord then arithmetic suggests that this calendar year should see 10,500 homes consented. 7,000 represents progress at 66% of the forecast rate. This suggests that Nick Smith/Len Brown's promise of 39,000 homes built (New Dunedin) will turn into 26,000 consents issued.
BTW only when Watercare can pipe potable water to these properties and pipe sewage away will the homes get built. Who cares what Len says? He should resign so my prediction comes true.
Watercare's installation charges are bordering on criminal .
There is no relationship between the ( at most) 50 meteres of domestic water piping and a Water-meter costing under $300 and the charge of $7,000 they levy to get the pipe to your gate .
I reckon a commercial plumber could do this all up for under $2,000.
Lets face it , this is nothing to crow about.
We have a known backlog of of around 30,000 housing units , it could be higher as I have never seen a register of house-hunters .
We also expect 90,000 new migrants this year from Asia , most of whom will gravitate to Auckland .
In late February and early March we will have thousands of foreign students arriving and looking for accomodation
Then we have another few thousand Kiwis likely to come back from Australia if the economy there slows and they dont qualfiy for Social Security .
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