Palino calls for removal of the urban-rural boundary

The Herald reports:

Auckland mayoral candidate John Palino is calling for the removal of the urban-rural boundary to improve housing affordability.

The boundary, known as the metropolitan urban limit, was restricting land supply in Auckland and driving up house prices for ideological reasons, Mr Palino said today.

“It is time council stopped flogging the dead horse that is the compact city and started releasing large amounts of land for residential development,” he said.

That one policy would do more for lowering house prices in Auckland than the next three policies combined. Land one one side of the boundary is eight to 12 times more expensive than that one the other side.

The massive house inflation in Auckland is a result of local policy decisions. Change those decisions to increase land supply and you’ll get a massive result.