Friday 17th December 2021
Page 11
CURRENT HOUSING CRISIS By Anna Bensemann, Senior Planner, Baseline Group. Is it a housing crisis, a land supply crisis, or an infrastructure crisis that is seeing sky-rocketing house prices? Perhaps it is a labour shortage meaning it’s difficult to build new homes to keep up with demand? Perhaps it’s the red tape created by the Resource Management Act (RMA) and Building Act processes adding time delays and costs to new builds? It is likely that all these factors collectively contribute to our current housing crisis, and each factor applies to differing degrees in each region and town. Given the complex and interconnected nature of factors contributing to the housing shortage no single action or Government ‘fix’ will alleviate the housing crisis. Rather there needs to be a cumulative shift towards the ultimate housing goal by multiple agencies to stimulate the growth required to alleviate our growing pains. This includes Central Government, Local Government and their resource consent and building consent divisions, and also the construction industry. First land needs to be available to develop for housing stock. This might be infill development
arising from increased density provisions and simplified resource consent criteria relating to amenity controls. We see this happening in Christchurch’s Residential Suburban Zone which allows for smaller allotments with reduced outdoor areas. Alternatively, this might be through increased green field development as seen on the periphery of Selwyn District townships. However, there is little point in rezoning land if landowners are not willing to develop in the near future, and land that is rezoned without landowner willingness to develop should not be considered as available for housing. Sewer, water supply and stormwater management infrastructure can cost millions of dollars to install. The cost of this infrastructure often falls on the developer, who in turn recovers cost through subsequent section prices, and directly affects the cost of buying a new home. Changes to how infrastructure is funded are proposed through the Central Government Three Waters Restructure, but it is unclear if this will actually lead to more cost-effective infrastructure or create additional delays and costs to development. Red tape delays at the Council
consenting stage (both Building and Resource Consents) can perhaps be managed through a culture shift within a councils’ executive and leadership team. Instead of the people on the ground being tasked with finding problems in applications (as it often appears to applicants), perhaps a culture that embraces ‘why can’t we say yes’ should be adopted? There is little wrong with the legislation or rules, as they do provide for welldesigned and healthy homes and neighbourhoods. Unfortunately, it sometimes appears that a regulatory culture of finding problems, rather than solutions, creates delays, adds complexity and increases compliance costs. The factors that contribute to the housing crisis are complex and interconnected and rely on land being available with willing landowners, costeffective infrastructure to service development and a recognition of the importance of enabling development through our regulatory framework and regulatory agencies supporting the ultimate housing goal. See advertisement in this issue for Baseline contact details.
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