Deficit of thousands for Auckland property, Mayor remains 'optimistic

Halfway through Auckland's Housing Accord, housing targets are being met, but an increase in the region's population has resulted in a deficit of thousands of properties. Photo / Janna Dixon

Halfway through Auckland's Housing Accord, housing targets are being met, but an increase in the region's population has resulted in a deficit of thousands of properties.

In September 2013, the Government and council agreed to the accord with a target of consenting 39,000 new homes over three years.

Auckland Mayor Len Brown told TV3's The Nation that "good progress" had been made.
"Not great or outstanding progress, but very good progress in terms of lifting that supply."

New apartments accounted for 40 per cent of consents applied for in the first quarter of this year, he said.

"And we're seeing that build going on in Auckland at around our metro centres with some real pace.

"So I'm not as pessimistic as that, I'm optimistic for the fact that the Auckland construction industry is building to this demand."

But property investor and developer David Whitburn from Fuzo Property told The Nation the situation had got worse.

"Even with that housing accord there we haven't seen that many houses built yet, there's been a number of infrastructure challenges."

There was really strong demand for houses, fuelled by a growing number of migrants to the city, he said.

"We also have a lot of people coming from the regions into Auckland, so we've got a really, really strong demand."

REINZ chief executive Colleen Milne told the show the median house price had risen from $563,000 to $675,000.

"So that's a 19 per cent rise in the last 18 months in Auckland."

Auckland Council Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse told The Nation housing targets were being met, but there were problems the city had to face.

"Number one, over the last fours years we've absorbed a city the size of Tauranga in the Auckland region and that's creating a problem.

"And the other issue is we are all nervous about being more interventionist and I think we need to be a bit more honest about what the problem is, move past numbers and get down to the real heart and the meat of the issue."

She accepted the rate of new affordable houses being built was not high enough.

"It means that...owning a house is not a future that every Aucklander can expect to be a part of."

The city was about 35,000 in deficit, which was a huge worry, Ms Hulse said.