New Zealand House Building – Welcome Back To The (Bureaucratic) Stone Age

The bureaucratic bludgeoning of the New Zealand residential construction sector from the modern production industry back to the Stone Age of the “horse and buggy” cottage industry. There are just 5 firms left producing over 100 residential units per annum now.

This is why new fringe starter housing in New Zealand costs in excess of $NZ2,500 per square metre ALL UP – while on the fringes of the affordable North American markets, the costs are in the order of $US600 per square metre ALL UP – refer “Houston: we have a housing affordability problem” -

http://www.interest.co.nz/news/49029/opinion-houston-we-have-housing-affordability-problem

Monday's Top 10 with NZ Mint; The crime of the century II; the war on house building; home equity grenades; unfunded pensions; "sustainable oil"; dairy oasis; Dilbert | interest.co.nz

5. Affordability 101
As regular readers will be well aware, the New Zealand housing market has been strangled by regulation, to the point where it is impossible to build new affordable houses especially for first home buyers. Builders have abandoned the business, instead focussing on the much smaller high-priced end of the market where there is an ability to pay for all those imposts. (In NSW, their regulators are even considering just taxing everyone to pay for their rule-making.)
Just how stuffed it is can be seen by relating the level of new dwelling consents to the number of households in the country. There is an obvious relationship between the two - the more households, the more we need dwellings. In the absence of new building, we get this foolish competition for the existing stock. This chart dramatically shows the impact of the strangulation. We are doing nothing to reverse the trend, so who knows where it will end up.

Hugh Pavletich
www.cantabriansunite.co.nz .....latest news .... http://www.facebook.com/CantabriansUnite
www.PerformanceUrbanPlanning.org

ENDS

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