Housing Supply in the Auckland Region 2000-2005

Prepared for the Centre for Housing Research Aotearoa New Zealand and the Department of Building and Housing and finally the Housing New Zealand Corporation.

We examine constraints to expansion of Auckland's housing supply. Since 2000, increases in demand for housing have outstripped increases in its supply. The result has been a major increase in land and house prices.

A range of factors have contributed to increased demand including positive net immigration, higher incomes and higher employment, coupled with strong ability to borrow to finance house purchase.

A number of factors have constrained supply. One of these has been a limited supply of land. Another contributor has been difficulties in the consents process, especially its time consuming nature; lack of appropriate resources within councils to handle both non-notifiable and notifiable consents is partly responsible for this situation.

We adopt a range of approaches to examine this issue. We 

• examine zoning and other regulations relating to housing;
• analyse trends in population, dwelling stock, house prices, costs, and new building;
• report on structured discussions held with 30 respondents in the private and public sectors; and
• conduct statistical analysis of building consent activity.

Finally, we discuss the implications of these analyses for house supply and the housing market in Auckland.