6,000 new homes for Auckland

Sarah Harvey at Stuff reports:

Up to 6000 new homes will be built in 10 areas of Auckland in the first step by the Government and Auckland Council to try to solve Auckland’s housing crisis.

The announcement today of the Special Housing Areas, by Auckland Mayor Len Brown and Housing Minister Nick Smith, comes after the Government and council this year signed an accord to run through until 2016 to increase the number of quality affordable homes in Auckland.

Smith said today land supply was the most “critical issue” when it came to addressing housing supply and affordability in Auckland. The first batch of land was a “significant step towards the Auckland Housing Accord’s target of consenting for 39,000 new homes over three years”.

The special housing areas announced today are in Papakura, East Tamaki, Pukekohe, Hobsonville, Kumeu, West Harbour and Orakei.

Excellent. Freeing up land and making it easier for new houses to be built is badly needed.

Applications for subdivisions would be considered by council under fast-tracked mechanisms. These aimed to deliver approvals within six months for greenfield developments, compared to the current average of three years, and three months for brownfield developments, compared to the current average of one year.

This will help allow supply to match demand, rather than lag behind it.

The Bankers’ Association said today’s announcement was a positive step in addressing the housing supply issue in Auckland.

Association chief executive Kirk Hope said the big issue in the Auckland housing market was a lack of supply.

“Freeing up land for housing is a move in the right direction to help improve supply where it’s needed and alleviate pressure on house prices.”

All the independent analysis of the housing cost issue has concluded that the major increase in cost has been the land.