Land in Auckland

Nick Smith said:

It is essential that more land is made available for housing to improve supply and affordability in Auckland, Minister of Housing Dr Nick Smith said today in releasing the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment report ‘Residential Land Available in Auckland’.

“This report shows a worrying trend of reduced land availability and soaring section prices in Auckland over the past decade. It highlights that with projected population growth, Auckland will need about 13,000 additional homes per year over the next three decades and that with changing household make-ups, the biggest growth in demand will be for smaller households,” Dr Smith says.

So how is the Council doing?

• The number of new sections available to be built on today is 1900 – significantly less than the 15,000 previously reported.
• The land ready to be subdivided has a capacity of 14,500 sections, compared to the Council’s development strategy target of seven years supply of 32,550 sections.
• The land in the pipeline for subdivision has a capacity of 54,500 sections, with the Council’s development strategy target being 20 years supply of 103,500 sections.
• “This report shows Auckland needs double the supply of land to meet the Council’s own targets.

That last point is crucial. They are not even on target to have half the land they need for their own targets. And their own targets are well below what is needed also.

The draft unitary plan projects:

• 280,000 new homes within the current urban limit
• 90,000 new homes in greenfield areas outside the current limit

So they are not on track to have even half the land they need for their draft unitary plan. But how realistic is it to have 280,000 new homes within the current urban Auckland?

The Government’s further concern, detailed in this report, is that Auckland’s plan will require the building of 4000 high-density dwellings every year for the next decade and 10,000 per year after that. This compares to 830 higher density dwellings consented last year and an average of 2674 per year over the past decade.

Does anyone think Auckland Council can consent 4,000 high-density dwellings a year let alone 10,000 a year?

Officials are cautious that this can be achieved, particularly when previous intensification targets set by Auckland planners a decade ago were not met.

In other words they’ve failed to meet even past modest targets, so its madness to think they can meet their targets either for intensification or for greenfield developments.