Media Release

Monday 18 June 2007

New town a solution for affordable housing

People are living in garages and sheds because the 'ridiculous' cost of land in and around the Auckland metropolitan region is driving housing prices beyond reach, says Mayor of Manukau Sir Barry Curtis. He is advocating the creation of a 'new town' to help resolve the crisis and give people on low to medium incomes a more realistic chance at getting into their own homes.

Sir Barry says housing affordability, particularly in the Auckland region, is in crisis. The inability of many families to afford homes is impacting on the social, mental and economic health of the region's people.

"The driving factor in this crisis is not the price of housing but the ridiculous price of land," Sir Barry says. "Not a lot of people realise that land in and around metropolitan Auckland is now fetching $600,000 to $1 million an acre. This flows on to the overall cost of housing for sale, and the availability and cost of rental housing. The net result is that housing is now well beyond the reach of people who need it, especially those on low to modest incomes."

In Manukau city, Sir Barry says, half of its families live on less than $30,000 a year net. "That's less than $575 per week. The inability of this number of families to afford to get into even a modest home hugely impacts on our social wellbeing. It leads to despair, anger, a reduction in the sense of community and belonging, and a loss of hope. Something must be done, and it must be done now."

Sir Barry says what is needed is a strategic and innovative regional approach incorporated into the current government and local authority review of governance in the Auckland region.

He says the crown, regional and local government should work together to create a new corporate structure and empower it to purchase a large tract of land well beyond metropolitan limits, somewhere between Wellsford in the north and Mercer in the south. This land could be purchased at a reasonable price, reflecting its rural zoning, and kept in public ownership in perpetuity. The corporation could then develop a comprehensive and well-planned new town, similar to what Manukau City Council is already doing with Flat Bush. It could incorporate a wide range of land uses including the provision of affordable housing. The model to follow would be that used in the 'new town' movement in Britain in the 1960s which created Milton Keynes and other new towns around London.

"The time is long overdue for serious consideration to be given to this strategic initiative," Sir Barry says. "The very social structures that kiwis so traditionally value and which is the cement that binds our communities together - the realistic hope of families owning their own home - is rapidly diminishing. I believe the new town proposal is the only way to achieve reasonably priced housing to a high standard for the benefit of present and future generations of Aucklanders."

ENDS

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