Author: Scott Caldwell

Yesterday, the government announced an ambitious new plan, a grabbag of housing policies ranging from okay to highly laudable designed to lower the price of housing. However, this package is a donut: a tasty outer with a great big hole in the center… The Problem For decades, New Zealand has faced two major shifts in the general population: significant growth, and significant aging.…

Auckland has a housing shortage. Everybody likes houses. Everybody understands that everybody needs to be housed. Nobody wants people to be homeless, or even overcrowded. People typically choose to live in a neighbourhood because they like that neighbourhood as it is.…

What would a typical Auckland suburban street look like if we intensified to meet the housing shortage? Auckland has about 550,000 dwellings, and estimates of the shortage are placed at about 50,000. In other words, we need to increase our housing stock by about 10%.…