Houston

Hugh Pavletich e-mailed:

The scale and quality of new housing is best illustrated within a large normal housing market such as Houston ( refer … Houston Association of Realtors … latest monthly report ) , where housing cost is at 3.0 times annual household incomes, as the latest Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey illustrates , coupled with Houston Area New Homes Source .

Last year the new residential build consenting rate for Greater Houston was 15 units per 1000 population per annum (90,000 units for a population of 6.1 million), while the United Kingdom was 1.85 units per 1000 population per annum (about 117,000 units for a population of 63.1 million). So on a population basis, there is in excess of 8 times the new builds in Houston, with the size of the Houston new builds likely well in excess of 3 times the size of the British.

The square footage or metreage of new residential building in Houston is therefore likely to be in excess of 24 times as much as the British (by multiplying the quantity and size).

Lunatic ideological British style urban planning (which still has its dwindling numbers of Luddite Malthusian  adherents in the Antipodes surprisingly), is therefore in essence, a deliberate poverty creation programme.

No wonder people are flocking to Houston to live.

New fringe starter housing should be available for young New Zealanders at about $NZ1,000 per square metre all up, or slightly below that. In other words, new starter housing of 150 square metres at about $NZ150,000 … 200 square metre for $NZ200,000 … and so forth …

Sadly, New Zealand Local Government “institutional failure” ( degenerate … just like the British LG sector as explained by the UK Daily Mail some years ago ) has artificially driven new homes costs to $NZ2,500 + plus per square metre on the fringes of earthquake hit Christchurch and $NZ3,500 + per square metres on the fringes of Auckland.

I hope to visit some developments in Houston when I am over there.