Affordable housing

OPINION: For reasons that are understandable the issue of affordable housing refuses to go away, with yet another report issued.  The focus is on young, often Pacifica families, who are forced to sleep in the back of a car or a van and so on.

There is no doubt that in Auckland particularly, cost is a big barrier – both the cost of purchase and the cost of renting in the meantime.  But this is a classic case of one case not fitting all.  Particularly for better off couples who are committed to saving a significant proportion of their joint income, it is not impossible to save up the money necessary for a deposit particularly if their initial “dreams” are reasonable modest.  So, a significant number of young couples do get into affordable housing.

And it is true that it has always been tough.  I remember that when my wife and I first bought a home it would not have happened if we were not both earning but it was still a struggle.

But I think current conditions – initially in Auckland but apparently now appearing in other centres – are extraordinary.  Although houses are being built and/or are on the market the price of “affordability” is higher than it has ever been, and local bodies, the Government, and developers have still to get their heads fully around the issues of supply – including the cost of infrastructure and the availability of land.  Having said that there are some examples around of well thought through and promising developments that could be a blueprint for wider action.

The Government’s Role

The Government’s hope in part is that many of the problems may now be solvable with the changes to the Resource Management Act.  But an Act is just words on paper – it needs real people to put them into action to make a difference.  And I am not sure that part of the solution yet exists or has been sorted out.  I think by having such a predominant focus on development, the Act may have created different types of problem for the future – particularly in the environmental area. However, that’s not unusual – “one size fits all” is a laudable aim for legislation but it rarely works out that way.

External Issues

There are other issues that are exacerbating the situation.  Immigration is continuing at record levels and thus does create extra pressure – although I am on record supporting immigration particularly if it means filling jobs that would otherwise not be done.  But the proviso with immigration has always been that we have the infrastructure in place to support the extra numbers.  That still seems to be the crucial gap.

The Future of Affordable Housing

It would be unrealistic to expect to house every family that wanted to move into a house – it will always be a struggle at the margin.  But that is where the struggle should be – at the margin.  For most young people there should be an accessible solution.

I think no one body or organisation is at fault here.  One of the issues is that there are a whole host of organisations involved in housing and it all has to come together to generate a solution.   I hope that actually happens and that articles like this are still not being written in 10 or 20 years’ time.

By Bas Walker

This is another of Bas Walker’s posts on GrownUps.  Please look out for his articles, containing his Beachside Ponderings.