Labour ignores its own report on land supply
new-zealand-national-party
Tue Aug 07 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Labour ignores its own report on land supply
Tuesday, 7 August 2007, 4:19 pm
Press Release: New Zealand National Party
Phil Heatley MP
National Party Housing Spokesman
7 August 2007
Labour ignores its own report on land supply
“Labour is deliberately choosing to ignore a significant report on housing affordability jointly commissioned by Housing New Zealand and the Department of Building and Housing,” says National Party Housing spokesman Phil Heatley.
“This proves that Labour puts politics ahead of affordable housing.”
The Housing Supply in the Auckland Region report says when it comes to housing affordability ‘the RMA process needs a revamp’ and ‘land availability is a constraining factor’.
"Interestingly, the research reported that restrictions in land release for housing in Auckland was not only helping drive up land prices, but it did not even have the desired effect of intensifying housing within Auckland.
“This is in direct contradiction to what Labour has been saying for the past few days.
"Suitable land needs to be released for subdivision. There are brown field sites within cities like Auckland that could easily be redeveloped, and large one-off sections that owners may like to split, if there weren't such onerous zoning restrictions or cumbersome RMA processes.
"Both the Prime Minister and the Housing Minister criticise John Key when their own advice embarrassingly tells them that the National Party Leader is on the right track.
"The Government continues to ignore these critical issues while making out that a few hundred affordable houses in Hobsonville, and a yet to be released shared equity scheme for a lucky few, will be of any use to the hundreds-of-thousands of families that can’t afford to buy a home.
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"With this head in the sand approach it is not surprising that the average price today for a bare section is $175,000, when that exact figure purchased a house plus a section when Labour first came to power.”
The Government report followed the January 2007 International Demographia survey that showed that the 20 cities in the western world with the most severe affordability problems were those with severe residential land planning restrictions. The 20 cities most affordable did not have such strict zoning and regulatory hurdles.
For further information please see:
www.chranz.co.nz/pdfs/housing-supply-in-the-auckland-region-2000-2005.pdf
www.demographia.com
ENDS
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