1 Comment

Affordability, sustainability and quality are certainly 3 factors that can be considered. I live in South Auckland. Around here affordability trumps the other two. An affordable non-sustainable pigeon coop beats a car or a relative’s garage any day.

On one side of the affordability equation there are incomes. So an economy with jobs that lift incomes would be a good start.

The other side of affordability is cost - and in cost I would include location with respect to public transport, jobs, schools, medical support and shops. (‘Desirability’ of location doesn’t rate. There is nothing wrong with Māngere Pak’nSave.)

Reducing cost means bringing down the cost of land adjacent to the above. This is an issue of reducing zoning restrictions. It also means reducing the cost of building, which mainly means increasing competition in the building materials market, but not forgetting the training for tradies.

I don’t know where it is at, but Auckland’s long term plan is onto it - significantly loosen zoning restrictions along transport routes and especially near hubs like Onehunga, Avondale or Manukau.

Affordability is tops. I think the correct troika of concerns is the economy, zoning restrictions and building sector competition. What’s more, these don’t involve tradeoffs one against the others.

Expand full comment