Housing crisis needs building surge

The New Zealand Initiative’s latest report - The Need to Build: The demographic drivers of housing demand - shows since 1992, the country has added only 21,445 private dwellings annually to the housing stock. There is now a shortage of 40,000 houses across the country.

“Inflexible housing development is the core problem,” says report researcher Leonard Hong.

He says the country is simply not building enough houses to meet the looming demographic changes and demands where housing needs will rise faster than population growth. The report is predicting an annual shortfall of up to 9,857 houses.

It points the finger squarely at successive governments for the country’s spiral into unaffordable housing and a shortfall of homes. This has created extremely expensive housing markets in Auckland and Wellington.