Auckland Unitary Plan Must Facilitate Development to Succeed

30 September 2013

Auckland Unitary Plan Must Facilitate Development to Succeed

Property Council is cautiously positive following the notification of Auckland’s Unitary Plan and congratulates the council for achieving the complex task of producing such document.

It supports the measures taken to simplify the plan and its processes, such as harmonising definitions across the region, and its intensification aims.

However, Property Council is deeply concerned about whether the Unitary Plan will realistically enable the level of commercial and residential development (intensification) that Auckland needs in order to grow and retain its economic vibrancy.

Property Council will carefully review the plan’s provisions in this respect. In particular, it will consider the cumulative impact of the various requirements and their implications for development and intensification.

As previously emphasised, Auckland Council must zone and provide for industrial, office, retail, business and residential growth.

Property Council does not believe the previous draft of the Unitary Plan succeeded in this respect. Too many policies and provisions made development expensive and difficult. With land costs already exponentially high, margins for development are stretched making it extremely difficult for developers to obtain finance and to justify risk.

As a result, every additional burden the Unitary Plan imposes in this area will stifle development, producing serious implications for progressing economic growth, job creation and housing affordability.

Property Council warns that unless the plan facilitates and encourages development it will fail to service and house Auckland’s population and will cause major headaches for local and central government.

ENDS

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