The New Zealand National Government’s single-minded focus on solving Auckland’s housing crisis by boosting supply continues to take a hammering.
Today, Statistics New Zealand released figures showing that construction momentum has slowed, with trend number of new homes consented decreasing 11% in the six months to January 2017:
According to the figures, there were 30,174 new dwellings consented across New Zealand in the year to February 2017, with just 10,045 consented in Auckland.
Clearly, this level of construction is nowhere near high enough to keep up with New Zealand’s immigration-led population growth, which added nearly 100,000 people in the 2016 calendar year:
With Auckland the major recipient (44,500 people):
Accordingly, Auckland’s housing crisis continues to worsen, as noted by Interest.co.nz:
In the 12 months to February consents were issued for just 10,045 new homes in Auckland, while it’s estimated that at least 15,000 would have been required to keep pace with population growth, which means Auckland’s housing shortage has worsened by about 5000 homes over the last year.
Thus, the National Government remains under acute pressure for failing to fix the housing mess as it heads to the General Election on 23 September.
