The Unitary Plan being pushed by an ‘Independent’ panel handpicked by the Government screams, “Supply, supply, supply” – which is exactly what the Government wants.
Less than 2% of the 240 000 houses that are predicted for the next 30 years will actually be ‘affordable. Proponents of the Unitary Plan say they can actually use the Plan to build 400 000 houses and that this oversupply will crash the housing market.
R-i-g-h-t.
This blind faith in the bloody market that millennial blue-greens who are pushing the Unitary Plan believe in is a joke. With Ray White advertising to 240 million Chinese, for the supply only approach to do what those championing this plan are claiming it can do, the plan would need to build 100 million houses!
Without any focus on the demand side of our housing crisis, this Unitary Plan won’t do a bloody thing to make houses more affordable.
For those Aucklanders living in garages, this Plan does bugger all.
For those Aucklanders living in their cars, this Plan does nothing.
For those Aucklanders trying to buy their first home, this Plan doesn’t help.
The Housing Crisis will remain a crisis without direct intervention and house building by the Government.
We need to ban foreign ownership, bring in a capital gains tax and build 100 000 affordable houses for first time buyers and 10 000 state homes to be built in Auckland alongside an urban intensification to solve this Housing Crisis.
Opening up huge sections of the City for density will be a dream for developers and speculators if we don’t get the demand side restrictions as well. In it’s current form the Unitary Plan is going to do sweet FA for the poor.
“We need to ban foreign ownership, bring in a capital gains tax and build 100 000 affordable houses for first time buyers and 10 000 state homes to be built in Auckland alongside an urban intensification to solve this Housing Crisis.”
This is what Meteria and the Green Party were saying a week ago and got panned for being politically naive for suggesting it. But is the truth is, the primary issue is with demand and as long as you have a housing market open to the entire world, the only thing that will stop it going up indefinitely would be a global economic collapse, especially property price collapses in China and Australia.
Wet pants Key wants us to be part of the “global economy”, which means adjustments up for housing costs, and adjustments down for many workers, as we will have to compete with the rich from various places buying our homes, land and businesses, and compete also with the poor workers overseas, who they will bring with them, to do the job as cheaply as possible, so the elite can rake in more profits, and shift ever more wealth from the middle class into their portfolios.
Thank you again Martyn, good issue here.
We now see that this secretive Government is setting the whole country is being set up for foreign takeover and similar to how Greece has been robbed of all assets now under this new “Local Government amendment Act 2 scheme that even a Legal interest Group “Brookfield’s legal” are taking issue with this dark seedy corporate control planned total takeover of all our assets in future.
It is the placing of all assets into a mandatory management which has to abide by other Government regulators which is the path to privatisation later into corporate hands as TPPA wants and what happened to Greece so this is a plan placed as a template from Bilderberg Group I fear as our Government is represented at their meetings in secret so then we need to expose this being set up for foreign takeover by Key and his crooks now.
http://www.brookfields.co.nz/publications/environmental-resource-mangement/360-local-government-act-2002-amendment-bill-no-2
Leaving us all much poorer even than now we are indeed ending in us as tenants in our own land”.
Key is a bald faced lair, as SS Joyce is, and English, who are all behind this scheme posed to steal the last remains of our country from us all Maori loosing everything too.
Therefore I am favouring Maori claim also on roads rail and water/land resources before Government get the law changes they’re pushing ahead now with re; “Local Government Amendment 2 Act” including oil/gas fracking) going though the house now next week, as a stealth way to seize control of water, transport and all land resources.
They will then be then all be sending everything by trucks, as is happening in HB/Gisborne and Northland, even Tauranga since we saw in today’s news a logging truck killed five at Kati Kati as we now see without our rail there is a doubling trucks
Then these natural assets will be set up for Corporate foreign interest to take over all rational Maori assets, water oil, gas, land & fishing.
http://www.brookfields.co.nz/publications/environmental-resource-mangement/360-local-government-act-2002-amendment-bill-no-2
“c. Separate sections that outline the requirements for water and transport services CCOs in respect of their service delivery and infrastructure management plans, their responsibilities and duties, and the establishment of a joint committee for shareholding of a multiply owned water services/transport CCO.
d. A local authority that is a shareholder in a substantive or multiply owned substantive CCO must adopt and publish an accountability policy for the organisation, and establish a joint committee to collectively manage their interests in performing or exercising their responsibilities, duties and powers as a shareholder of the CCO.”
The Bill has been referred to the Local Government & Environment Select Committee for consideration and public consultation, and is due to be reported back to the House on 28 October 2016.
That new Local Government Act Amendment Bill has already been slammed by Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1608/S00008/government-must-look-again-at-local-body-legislation.htm
Indeed, the threat of centralised take-over, and corporisation of local bodies all over the nation are real, it seems.
Developers are never going to build houses that first time buyers can afford while there are investors with fat wallets out there. Only government, or possibly the Auckland Council itself, can and should undertake to build houses, possibly on a rent to buy basis, for first time buyers looking for a home. The Council should also look at ways to control rents, using the concept of “reasonable return” on investment. There should be a total ban on foreign ownership of agricultural and residential land. We just don’t need that kind of toxic investment with proceeds flowing overseas. The first task for New Zealand is to house, feed, educate and support all New Zealanders to lead fulfilled lives.
I was listening to Duncan Garner on Radio Live today. I know, it is not the best program, and he can be quite a bit of a pain listening to, and my view of his program is not all that favourable.
But at least he has been on the ball re the housing issues here in Auckland, repeatedly raising issues, having also had people from Auckland Action Against Poverty on the program, exposing how the poor live in unacceptable “housing”, or without it.
So today he was again talking about other associated, consequential issues, that arise as part of the over-heated market. That is the over-priced market, as construction is only just taking off, from a low level it has been at for years.
With the huge housing costs, not just for buying homes, but also for renting, there are now many schools that struggle to find teachers. Some schools get no applications at all for vacancies, and some have to use relief teachers, teacher aides or others, to look after students during classes.
Some have to let students go home early, as they have not enough teachers.
There are similar issues with ECE, also increasingly with health services struggling to cope with the significant number of new Aucklanders, being some from regions in New Zealand, others being new migrants, and there is also some natural growth.
We have a significant population increase, that is allowed to continue, while other regions are neglected, while most want to come to live in Auckland, where there are certain migrant communities the newcomers wish to rather join and live within.
All this creates massive demand not just for housing, but also for endless services, and for infrastructure.
So we already have a shortage of builders and various trades-people. I am waiting for repairs to be done in my rental for two and a half months, now, as my landlord cannot get a trades-person. He already got quotes that were so over-priced, he could not afford that.
Now we are short of teachers and ECE staff, as they rather work somewhere else where they can afford housing and do not have to commute for hours.
So Garner mentioned, or rather a school principal phoning in, that the Minister of Education is already considering bringing in overseas teachers!!! I have also heard that John Key considers allowing Chinese building companies to enter the market, and to also bring in new trades-people from various places overseas.
What does this mean? They now want to extinguish the fire with pouring more gasoline into it. They want to solve the issues that have arisen from too high population growth (incl. immigration) in Auckland by letting yet more in, to do the work that is needed catering for the ones already causing the stress.
I despair, is this for real?
We are governed by headless chickens and nutters, or irresponsible, incompetent political managers with their bought “experts”, who are about to ruin this country, if they are left to their game and continue with this shambles.
But they cannot stop it, as that will cause a collapse of sorts, maybe not of house-prices, but of infrastructure and many services, which we cannot even pay for, unless we borrow even more. FFS, I despair.
Oh yeah, and here is the report showing the feasibility studies for enabled housing for Auckland, that was published as part of the IHP recommendations:
http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/council/documents/unitaryplan/ihpoverviewofrecommendationsann1.pdf
A memo on page 18 mentions this:
“Patrick Fontein of Studio D4 (SD4) has been engaged by the Auckland Unitary Plan Independent Hearings Panel (IHP) to work with Auckland Council (AC) , to review the residential development capacity of the urban Auckland areas, using the IHP’s proposed rules and zoning of areas, using the ACDC Model, as described in the Section below. SD4 have been provided with the proposed IHP changes during the last few months, and these have been fully incorporated into these latest results of the ACDC. Please refer to the IHP’s Report for the details of the proposed rules and zone changes. The urban area definition is also contained within the IHP Report…”
Mr Fonteyn has been involved in property development for many years, and not all of his projects worked out well. But he was part of the “experts” who were running and reviewing the computer models, to establish how much economically feasible, enabled homes could be fit into Auckland over the coming two to three decades.
Pages 59 and 60 of the report found via the above link show the figures Labour relied on, based on a “maximum return scenario”, which most developers would usually prefer in a liberally applied market situation, which the Hearings Panel have now recommended.
Info on Mr Fonteyn and his past endeavours:
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/fontein-loses-bankruptcy-battle-133654
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/4330378/Property-developer-made-error-of-judgement
He is now into “consultancy”, what a “surprise”?! He lobbied strongly before the IHP and also Council, for the kind of “Plan” that has now been recommended.
He was representing the business sector on the computer modelling that was done as part of the Unitary Plan hearings process, to provide info on feasibility.
So the report is not only based on his work and interpretations, but it bears also his fingerprints.
Please note, page numbers mentioned are the pages in the PDF, not to be confused with numbers on various documents included in it.
For those who may be interested in building costs, statistics and so forth, here are some BRANZ industry reports:
http://www.branz.co.nz/cms_show_download.php?id=933b142299b28c52da17492f80a6689fdc40d287
http://www.branz.co.nz/cms_show_download.php?id=0bc6aee8f1bfbd782cec84b14140039729606e90
https://nzier.org.nz/static/media/filer_public/a7/92/a7926a2e-80f1-40a4-81ef-27388fb470fa/the_impact_of_intensification_of_auckland_housing_valuations.pdf
See Table 2 on page 8 in the PDF (page number 5 on document) of the NZEIR report (found under last link), that construction costs are much higher per square meter for multi-storey, intensive developments.
So apartments are not necessarily cheaper, but may be cheaper in larger, compact developments, that is per unit, as land costs become a less significant factor in such cases.
With higher demand the development and construction costs are also expected to increase, so no easy solution for Auckland’s housing crisis!
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