Texas Lessons
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election.
Austin feels like a city on the move.…
17 Comments Auckland needs infrastructure investment to support intensification
This is a letter to Auckland Council elected members, sent by the Coalition for More Homes on Tuesday the 6th of December 2023. We’re sharing it because it’s on point: infrastructure needs to keep up with new housing, and fast.
Intensification is occurring across most of the Auckland urban area, delivering greater housing choice, improved affordability and lower carbon living.…
More Homes vs Light Rail
Last week, the Coalition for More Homes sent a letter that we really shouldn’t have had to write. But first, some backstory and some acronyms.
Auckland Council is required to implement Government planning reforms called the NPS-UD and MDRS. The NPS-UD (National Policy Statement on Urban Design 2020).…
Everyone Should Care About Urbanism, and Here’s Why
This piece was originally written for Fightback magazine. They challenged me to explain why Greater Auckland’s policy goals – intensification rather than sprawl, and better active and public transport – are relevant for everyone. I was imagining an audience of working-class families in car-dependent suburbs.…
NIMBY Bingo!
While I get my thoughts in order for the ‘Housing 2020’ programme which has largely spilled over into 2021, please enjoy something from the unwritten archives.
There are a few common elements when people complain about new housing. You see the same arguments raised, and often the same photo of dour residents with their arms crossed.…
Household Emissions in NZ (part 1 – housing)
This is part 1 of a 3-part series on household emissions in NZ. This part looks at whole-of-life emissions from housing. Part 2 will do the same for household transport, and part 3 will tie them together (the implication being: it really matters where we build new homes).…
Who’s afraid of the big bad body corp?
I’m going to say ‘body corporate’ and ‘bodies corporate’ a lot below, so let’s shorten it to ‘BC’ and ‘BCs’ right off the bat.
BCs often get a bad rap in New Zealand. They can be seen as expensive, unwieldy, unaccountable, or stopping you from doing what you want with your property.…
How Should Housing Affordability Be Defined?
This is a guest post by Tamba Carleton. Tamba is a Research Manager at CBRE and her work focuses on the housing market.
A lot of people would agree that housing in New Zealand is unaffordable. Rents and mortgages cost hundreds of dollars a week, and deposit requirements are so large that people need to save them up over many years.…
Sunday reading on housing 5 July 2020
It’s been almost two years since we had a ‘Sunday reading’ post – Matt has been doing his ‘Friday roundups’ instead – but with everything I’m doing on housing, I thought it was worth bringing a few pieces together this week.…
The Housing Continuum
The “housing continuum” has become an important idea in NZ policy. Here’s the image used by Auckland Council in their Auckland Plan 2050, and Community Housing Aotearoa has written a good summary of what it all means: Emergency housing: The only short-term housing category, defined as stays of up to 12 weeks but often intended to be much shorter than that.…
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