Planning for Housing Affordability in Auckland, New Zealand

Abstract

Housing affordability is a problem facing a number of cities in New Zealand, particularly Auckland. Between 2002 and 2014, the median house price in Auckland increased by 159 percent, while median income only increased by 46 percent. Housing affordability has become an issue that both central and local government are attempting to improve. Most recently this has been through creating and altering planning and regulatory approaches to increase housing affordability over the long term, and also achieving ways of providing affordable houses.

This research sought to characterise and evaluate current government housing policy interventions in Auckland, New Zealand. The research also aimed to test the appropriateness of a more comprehensive measure of affordability. A pragmatic qualitative research design was used for the research. Document analysis and key informant interviews provided the majority of the data for this research, supported by relevant literature and a conceptual framework of housing affordability. Key documents analysed included the Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Act 2013, the Auckland Housing Accord 2013, the proposed Auckland Unitary Plan and the proposed National Policy Statement on Urban Development Capacity. After developing a thorough understanding of the current situation in Auckland, the applicability of a more comprehensive measure of affordability was assessed. A key result confirmed that current, traditional measures of affordability focus on house price related to household income and focus on increasing the supply relative to the demand. Notably, the research highlighted that demand factors such as high immigration, overseas investment and property speculation have not been a focus for government policy as these were found to have little impact on housing affordability. The research sought to test the idea of ‘affordable living’ as a more comprehensive measure of housing affordability. It was found that even though transport and energy are important to consider in planning and policy making, they should not be included in measuring affordability in Auckland at this time due to the difficulties in achieving traditional housing affordability. This research, which used Auckland as a case study, can be of relevance to other local authorities that are experiencing similar issues to Auckland.