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Phil Goff convenes taskforce to address 'severe difficulties' caused by Auckland housing shortage

Property
Phil Goff convenes taskforce to address 'severe difficulties' caused by Auckland housing shortage

The Auckland Mayoral Taskforce on Auckland Housing Supply is meeting for the first time today (Monday) to try and identify ways to increase the supply of housing in the region.

The Taskforce is made up of 16 representatives from the public and private sectors (see list below) who will attempt to identify barriers and constraints to increasing the supply of housing in the region to a level that meets its growth in population and suggest ways of overcoming them.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said Auckland's population was growing by around 900 people a week and the region was facing severe difficulties as the supply of housing failed to keep pace with demand.

"The number of extra houses the city needs each year is estimated at around 13,000 and we have been building only around half that number," he said.

"The accumulated shortfall in homes grows each year and this has resulted in the cost of buying a house becoming unaffordable for a growing number of Aucklanders, rent rises putting low income households under real pressure and growing homelessness."

The Taskforce's recommendations will be publicly released in May.

The Taskforce is comprised of representatives from Auckland Council, Auckland Transport, BNZ, Fletcher Construction, Institute of Architects, Master Builders, Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, Ministry for the Environment, NZ Housing Foundation, Ockham Residential, Sapere Research Group, Sense Partners, Stevenson Group, Todd Property, The Treasury and Willis Bond & Co.

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10 Comments

What about rates rises and the increase in Council debt Mr Mayor? Are you going to include that in your scope?

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What's Goff going to do with more than half a dozen elephants in the room for goodness sake ?

He is frankly powerless to remove some of the elephants because he does not control inward-migration , nor does he control inward currency flows looking for yields , nor does he control interest rates , nor has he got the balls to say the RMA is a major obstacle , nor is he able to tax ( stop) land speculators, nor does he control the oligopoly that decides how much we pay for building materials , nor does he control the wage rate demanded by builders .

He will simply produce a report ( an expensive one at that ) and nothing will happen

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I don't think he's powerless - he just needs to have the chutzpah to stand up and call the government out. He can start doing that, and keep doing that, until the government starts to take action.

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Agree. Yet another talkfest.
Wake me up when there is some meaningful central govt action....

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Increase rates on unoccupied houses and unimproved land. Slap a 20% stamp duty on foreign purchases and invest the money in infrastructure.

Realise that Economics 101 includes both Supply AND Demand.

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1 - allow multi-proof consent for any wooden-framed, single-storey, light-roof residence.
2 - waive development contributions for any modular-housing factories or even, what the hell, throw some actual cash at some start-ups.
3 - fire the 900+ planners and retrain 'em to work on producing modular, multi-proof-consented dwellings, in the resulting crop of produceries (see #2 above)

Next problem? (Removes tongue from cheek, sits back in chair, awaits the flood of informed comments).

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I like what you said from my uninformed POV, Very much doubt they will have any power to pass the gatekeepers. Maintaining the status quo is far more important to the gatekeepers than its consequences.

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or how about asking the people of Auckland and/or NZ do we actually want or need 900 more people per week in Auckland and all the multi billion dollar infrastructure costs that come with them? Not to mention loss in productivity and lifestly from our clogged roads and inadequate public transport. plus need for extra schools hospitals....etc etc

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Quite simply , we carry on like this and we will have a city that only the rich can afford to live in ......

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If you don't build anymore houses then 900 people per week won't be able move their and jam up the roads & other infrastructure. Sorry Auckland is full & can't afford all the new infrastructure for the new housing, try down the road - yeah some people miss out & can't afford homes but that's life and the growth is unsustainable.Population growth will benefit the rest of NZ more than Auckland, ideally for Auckland the population would shrink.

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