House building starting to rise again
The 2008/2009 recession hammered the country's residential construction industry, with the number of houses built in 2009 half that of 2007.
The recession also boosted annual population growth to 1.3% from 0.9%, as fewer Kiwis crossed the Tasman and more came home from overseas. This has resulted in a housing squeeze, said Westpac chief economist Brendan O'Donovan, shown in an increase in the average number of people per house in New Zealand lifting to 2.55 from 2.52.
"By our calculations, the current rate of house building will be enough to keep the number of people per house constant through 2010, but will not be enough to bring it down," O'Donovan said.
The number of people per house has been trending down for decades as family sizes have shrunk, incomes raised and the number of elderly living in one and two-person households has increased. Comparing the number of people to its estimated trend suggests that New Zealand has a housing shortage of about 10,000 houses.
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