Lots more lovely, fluffy ideas on how to improve housing affordability.

From the perspective of a developer with 20 years experience, here are two things that could be changed right now that would make a world of difference:

ONE:
Change the district plan country wide and allow every section inside a town boundary to be intensified, very similar to what Auckland has done. This would immediately free up tens of thousands of development sites within towns and cities, and importantly utilise existing infrastructure (roading, water, waste water, bus routes, parks etc).

Remove density limits, remove height limits, build up – not out. Basically do what successful cities overseas have done, the ones who have gone up and stop following the Americans strip mall/sprawl model. At the same as freeing up development in towns and cities, make it extremely difficult to develop farm land. Releasing more farmland is expensive for councils and long term will ruin NZ’s natural beauty and our ability to produce the high quality food the world’s growing population wants and needs.

TWO:
Privatise the consenting process. Why are councils deciding on land use? And why are they inspecting house construction and carrying the risk of something going wrong, leaky homes etc. Privatising the consenting process would immediately speed up consent issuance and as a side affect, it would enable councils to focus on what they should be doing, providing services like water, waste water and rubbish collection.

John Kenel
Assured Property

Source: Stuff.co.nz

#assuredproperty #housing #rentals #propertyinvestment