Minister for Housing and Infrastructure, Chris Bishop has told his Cabinet colleagues to expect a plan to fix the housing crisis to be delivered in the first quarter of this year.
On Tuesday morning, Bishop gave a speech to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce on how the coalition Government plans to tackle housing costs and released a relevant cabinet paper.
The paper said housing affordability was “arguably the single most pressing economic, social and cultural problem facing” the new Government.
Increasing the supply of land was key to lowering housing costs and improving living standards, productivity, wages, social housing, and restoring “the dream of homeownership”.
Bishop said his goal was to “flood urban housing markets” in big cities with land zoned for development — both through densifying existing suburbs and creating new ones.
“I propose to return to Cabinet in the first quarter of 2024 with a comprehensive plan to solve New Zealand’s housing crisis,” he wrote in the paper.
This plan will make more land available for housing and mixed use development, and give councils funding tools for infrastructure upgrades and financial incentives to grow.
In his speech, the Minister said the first element of the package would be requiring councils to zone enough land for 30 years of housing growth.
Councils will be allowed to opt out of the bi-partisan Medium Density Residential Standards but only if they are able to zone enough housing in other ways.
That could mean ultra-density in some place, or entirely new suburbs on farmland surrounding cities. Bishop said he was working with officials to find a way to enforce this rule.
“To put it bluntly, we are going to let councils have more discretion over where they have density, but they’re going to have more housing. It’s as simple as that,” he said.
There will also be changes made to the National Policy Statement on Urban Development to allow more mixed-use zoning—for homes and businesses—around transport nodes.
“It’s mixed-use zoning that produces the type of cities that New Zealanders regularly travel overseas to enjoy; but which we could have right here at home with some imagination and the right tools at our disposal”.
The Minister said legislation to give effect to these policies would be introduced in the coming months.
Too many New Zealanders were moving overseas and not returning because of how expensive it was to own or rent a house, he said.
“The lure of London, New York and Sydney will always be attractive to young Kiwis.”
“But our housing market is practically standing at the departure lounge at Auckland Airport and in big neon writing telling them to just get on the plane”.
Hint for Wellington
The Minister also appeared to hint he may back up the Wellington City Council if it chose to reject the recommendations of its Independent Hearing Panel proposed district plan.
Economists and housing advocates have been highly critical of the Panel for rejecting evidence that land supply is the key driver of housing costs.
The panel has often opted to zone the minimum amount of housing permitted within the laws and has recommended extending character protections.
In his speech, Bishop said he would be in charge of any decisions related to housing where councils and Independent Hearings Panels do not agree.
He specifically cited the Wellington IHP process as a possible example and also took a swing at people who deny land-use is responsible for high housing costs.
“The idea that zoning and land supply does not affect housing affordability is frankly nuts,” he said, in a different section of the speech.
“The evidence is as plain as day: cities that make it difficult to build more housing have housing affordability problems. Cities that legalise housing find it is more affordable”.
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