Confusion doesn’t help shortage

Lack of clarity reigns over the number of houses actually built under Auckland’s Housing Accord.

Thursday, November 26th 2015, 4:20PM

by Miriam Bell

Thanks to the Housing Accord which speeds up the consent process and established Special Housing Areas (SHAs), progress is being made in addressing Auckland’s housing shortage – according to the Government and the Council.

With a fair degree of fanfare, Building and Housing Minister Nick Smith and Auckland Mayor Len Brown yesterday released the second year Housing Accord monitoring report.

Smith said that, overall, 23,806 dwellings have been consented and new sections created, as compared to the target of 22,000.

“So we are 1,806 ahead of where we aimed to be. It is a good result, although it is the Year Three target that will stretch us.”

Under the Housing Accord, there is a target of 39,000 new sections and dwellings to be consented over three years – with 9000 in Year One, 13,000 in Year Two and 17,000 in Year Three.

The Government and the Council achieved 123% of the target in Year One and 98% of the target in Year Two, hence they are ahead of the target.

Brown said the report showed the joint efforts of the Government and the Council are delivering results and helping to boost the city’s housing supply.

Under the Housing Accord, Auckland now has 106 SHAs which have a combined potential yield of more than 48,000 new homes, he said.

“These Housing Accord figures on the strong growth in Auckland’s house build rate are reinforced by other independent data – like the National Construction Pipeline Report and Statistics New Zealand’s latest annual building consent data.”

However, following the release of the report, speculation has grown over how many new houses have actually been built as a result of the Housing Accord.

Brown said that 1226 dwellings have received building consents in the SHAs.

Media were later told that 500 houses have been built in the SHAs.

While this figure is a big increase on the 102 SHA houses the Council recently said had been completed, it is still off the pace in terms of the build rate needed to make inroads into the city’s shortage.

The numbers were being pulled out of a hat, according to Labour’s housing spokesperson Phil Twyford.

He said the 500 house figure comes after two years of officials saying it was impossible to know how many houses had been built in the SHAs because the information wasn’t recorded.

In his view, there has been ministerial reluctance to say how many homes have been finished because the number falls pitifully short of the 13,000 new houses Auckland needs every year.

“Even the current consent rate is more than 4000 short. Auckland’s housing shortage is estimated to be 32,000 homes and it is getting worse every day.”

Brown admitted to media that the Council did not yet have a system to record homes completed under the Housing Accord rules when their compliance consent certificates were issued.

He said he was applying pressure to staff to get a better idea of exactly how many houses are being built in the SHAs.

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