标题: Poor planning at root of housing crisis (from NBR) [打印本页] 作者: mwe23 时间: 2015-10-21 15:21:25 标题: Poor planning at root of housing crisis (from NBR)
Planning systems need an overhaul if New Zealand is to have enough land for housing.
In its report Using Land for Housing, the Productivity Commission says rapid increases in the average price of residential land reflect councils’ inability to zone and service enough land to meet demand.
Commission chairman Murray Sherwin says councils need to break land bankers’ habit of hanging on to their property because there is more money to be made from simply holding it instead of using it.
He says urban planning is not set up to respond to land bankers nor market signals from sharply increasing prices. “Soaring house prices are a clear indication that rising demand for housing is not being met with rising supply. This needs to change.”
In Auckland, land is now five times more expensive than it was 20 years ago, contributing to high housing costs, shutting aspiring owners out of the market, narrowing the type and quality of housing choices, leading to overcrowding, and creating barriers for people wanting to move into cities where there are more jobs and higher incomes.
Mr Sherwin says the most important thing councils and the government can do is committing to the release and servicing of more land and bringing land price inflation under control.
“If councils are unable to make this commitment, then central government will need to step in and make it happen,” he says.
“The government should set a limit for land price inflation that clearly signals to councils, landowners and developers the conditions under which it would intervene to make more land available.”
Mr Sherwin says there are many obstacles to the supply of land, including local homeowners opposing developments they believe could decrease the value of their houses, change their neighbourhoods or increase rates.
“Many councils prefer to house their growing population through greater density within existing city boundaries. However, some planning rules are inhibiting that increased density.
“Where a city has barriers to both growing up and growing out, the inevitable response is higher housing prices.”
The Commission makes a number of recommendations to overhaul planning so it meets demand, including better cost-recovery for infrastructure, proper cost-benefit analysis before planning rules are introduced, and more support from central government to help councils develop higher-density housing on inner-city sites.
“A sufficient supply of land for housing, an adequate supply of affordable housing, and the effective functioning of our cities, are topics of national importance,” Mr Sherwin says.
“Central government has a legitimate interest in resolving those issues where local councils cannot.”
NBR reporter Jenny Ruth talks to Mr Sherwin about the recommendations, some of the reasoning behind them and how likely the government and councils will adopt them.