A new study out on the damaging impact of regulations on housing affordability found sky-high price rises and recommends severely restricting council planners' powers.
The study from Registered Master Builders and the Construction Strategy Group, funded by the BRANZ research levy, found what it termed over-regulation in the sector and it made many recommendations.
"The cost of providing housing is soaring. In the last 15 years, the cost of delivering a standardised new house has risen 110 per cent compared with overall cost of living rises of 44 percent," the study said.
It recommends the Government specifying and limiting the authority of council planners and wants councils to be forced to explicitly include housing affordability impacts in defining the desired character of neighbourhoods.
"A number of recommendations are proposed. These include reducing over-regulation by Central Government specifying and limiting the authority of council planners and freeing up the market," the study said.
