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This was the second census in a row where the bottom spot in the table went to Hamilton. In 2018, the census recorded 53.9% of Hamiltonians owned their own home.
Elsewhere in Waikato, over three-quarters of households in the Thames-Coromandel District were homeowners.
Matamata-Piako and Taupō had homeownership rates above 70%. Ruapehu, South Waikato and Waitomo’s home ownership rates were in the 60% to 65.9% range.
The most recent census recorded the wider Waikato region’s population at 498,771 with a median age of 37.9. There were about 216,222 dwellings in the region.
The home ownership data was collated according to territorial authority.
Census 2023 data showed Hamilton City was the territorial authority with the lowest home ownership rates in New Zealand at 53.5%.
According to Waikato Housing Initiative, a group mandated by the Waikato Mayoral Forum to facilitate the delivery of affordable homes, only 15% of Waikato families can afford to buy a home when it becomes available.
The initiative’s stocktake of housing revealed the region is 7500 homes short and will require 75,000 more homes to be built by 2043 to meet the needs of changing communities.
Waikato Housing Initiative trustee Thomas Gibbons said the data wasn’t surprising.
“It shows in Hamilton there is a degree of steady decline in home ownership.”
Gibbons said while home ownership was an important social goal it was only one aspect in the “housing continuum”.
“There’s a whole lot of other things that are important like improving situations for those who are homeless or for those who are in emergency housing and looking at improving rental affordability.”
He said home ownership rates were “one stat among many” that were also important.
“There is no one problem and there is no one solution,” Gibbons said.
“What this does do is recognise that there is a housing issue in Hamilton and more broadly the Waikato.”
There was “no silver bullet”, Gibbons said. The private sector, housing providers and policy makers at the national, regional and local levels need to look at a range of funding and policy solutions to deliver affordable housing.
“There’s a whole lot that can be done by a whole lot of different people.”
Nationally, the 2023 census showed a home ownership rate of 66%, meaning 1.17 million Kiwis own their home or hold it in a family trust, compared with 64.5% in 2018.
Stats NZ principal analyst Rosemary Goodyear said the national increase in home ownership, although small, was a reversal of a falling trend since a peak in the early 1990s.
“Home ownership rates are influenced by a range of factors, particularly affordability, and we know that house prices tend to be highest in city centres, especially in Auckland and Wellington, whereas homes further out may be more affordable,” Goodyear said.
“We also know that rates of home ownership are higher among older people, so we see a pattern where areas with older populations have higher home ownership rates.”
Wellington City had the second lowest home ownership rate at 58.6%.
In Auckland, home ownership rates were higher for local board areas further from the centre. Aotea/Great Barrier Island, Rodney, and Hibiscus and Bays had home ownership rates ranging from about 73 to 78%.
Auckland City had the third lowest home ownership rate at 59.5%.
Maryana Garcia is a Hamilton-based reporter covering breaking news in Waikato. She previously wrote for the Rotorua Daily Post and Bay of Plenty Times.
