Auckland pace of building continuing to grow   1 Sep 2016

Nick Smith

31 AUGUST, 2016

Auckland pace of building continuing to grow

Development activity is continuing to gather pace in Auckland, according to the Auckland Housing Accord quarterly monitoring report released today by Building and Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith and Auckland Mayor Len Brown.

“I am hugely encouraged by the progress we are continuing to make in growing new home construction, and we remain on track for meeting the target of 39,000 consents for new homes and sections over three years. This progress is confirmed by yesterday’s building consent statistics, which showed an increase of 29 per cent in the value of residential construction activity in Auckland during the past year.

“The challenging part of the current building boom is that it is not just in housing; at the same time there is huge growth in commercial, industrial and public building infrastructure, such as education. Yesterday’s figures showed the value of total building activity in Auckland is $6.9 billion, up 32 per cent on the previous year.”

The Auckland Housing Accord, agreed between the Government and Auckland Council in 2013, was about increasing the pace of new home construction through improving existing resource management and building consents processes, as well as providing for Special Housing Areas (SHAs) while the Unitary Plan was being developed.

“The 154 SHAs established under the accord enabled progress to be made on structure planning, resource consents, infrastructure and building consenting in the interim. Right now, this report shows that at 30 June, 1342 homes had been completed, 2208 building consents approved and 441 resource consents approved for 6731 sections and dwellings. Plan change and resource consents processes are also under way for 33,243 sections and dwellings.

“Building consents in SHAs made up 6 per cent of total consents in the first year of the Auckland Housing Accord, 9 per cent in the second year and 14 per cent in the third. This is projected to grow to more than 20 per cent in 2017 and 30 per cent in 2018 as the land development is completed.”

Mr Brown says his stance from the start of the accord has been that local and central government need to keep their foot on the accelerator, and they have.

“With the sign-off of the Unitary Plan on 19 August we now have capacity to create more than 400,000 new homes in the city over the next 25 years.”

Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse, who led the Unitary Plan process through the Auckland Development Committee, says the accord has been a helpful tool in providing some solutions to the city’s housing challenges while the plan was being developed.

“Now we have the plan, a single blueprint for the future development Auckland, we can grow and shape our incredible city in decades to come,” Ms Hulse says.

Dr Smith says he wants to particularly acknowledge the commitment by Mr Brown and Ms Hulse to the Auckland Housing Accord, which has helped support the longest and strongest sustained growth in residential building activity in Auckland’s history.

“It is important that the Government and the council continue to work together given the ongoing challenges in Auckland on housing. I look forward to discussions with whomever is elected as Auckland’s new mayor on the potential extension of the Housing Accord to maintain the co-operation and momentum.”

Further information on the Auckland Housing Accord is available from:www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/ratesbuildingproperty/housingsupply/

Pages/aucklandhousingaccord.aspx.

Related Documents

• Auckland Housing Accord Monitoring Report.pdf (pdf 10.66 MB)
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