Summit ‘a start’ to fixing housing crisis
Initiatives discussed include accord in which political parties pull together and agree on core principles
Atarget of 14,000 new Auckland houses built a year, banning foreign buyers from buying existing homes and tackling the construction sector duopoly are ideas put forward to solve the city’s housing crisis.
Auckland Housing Summit organising committee chairwoman Leonie Free- man, said 130 people came up with solutions when the committee met last month. It has now issued its report.
In a recommendation that follows Australia’s foreigninvestment regime, the report suggested “investigating changes to foreign ownership rules so foreign investors can only buy new homes”.
In a section on housing delivery barriers, it cited the “monopoly/duopoly on supply chain of materials”, along with skilled labour, difficulties retaining skilled tradespeople, insufficient building scale and lack of private/public partnerships.
Freeman, former Housing New Zealand general manager and a director of the $1.6 billion NZX-listed Goodman Property Trust, recommended establishing an independent not-for-profit organisation to tackle the issues.
The summit was a start, not an end, she said.
“This summit shows there’s lots of people in the industry saying ‘this isn’t good enough’ and leadership isn’t being shown by Government or Auckland Council.
“There were lots of initiatives discussed. There were people . . . saying they were going to set up advocacy groups. It’s another step forward,” she said.
The report, titled Connecting Minds, Collective Action, said that developers, lawyers, planners, architects, construction company and material supplier representatives, community housing providers and gov- ernment officials attended the summit. One summit vision was to have all Aucklanders well housed by 2030 and to ensure the right for all residents of the city to live in an affordable home in their community. The report recommended a housing accord in which all the political parties pulled together and agreed on core principles.
“We’re acutely aware that in addition to the need for increased social housing in Auckland, those in the middle of the spectrum struggling to pay rent or purchase a home, also need accessible options,” Freeman said.
“We’re not going to get anywhere by using the same thinking that’s got us here. Innovation and a cultural shift towards its role in creating communities is an essential part of the solution.”
Replicating good design on a larger scale, assisted financing options, addressing construction costs and speeding up the consent process were all identified as issues.