AFFORDABLE HOUSING AT SCALE

Overview

New Zealand's post-war period was a time that came with a tremendous amount of investment into housing and urban development.  Today, our post-pandemic period similarly commands a transformational and generational opportunity: to develop homes and communities that meet the needs of current and future New Zealanders. 

Delivering the right type of housing, in the right places, and at affordable price points, requires a systematic change in how we think about housing and urban development. Though this has started, there are gaps to fill. Directives from high levels of government have considered necessities such as wellbeing, and community organisations are emerging with new ways of innovating for housing. However, the private sector and other government organisations need to be more active in “building back better.” 

This report explores how to deliver ‘en-masse’ houses that reduce initial and ongoing costs and become affordable. The report looks at ways of achieving this through better use of our physical, economic and knowledge-based resources. 

The key topics covered by the report are;

1. Co-operatives; what they are and their potential to support diversity and reduce individual costs.
2. Community Land Trusts; what they are and how they can support perpetual affordability.
3. Mechanisms to deliver affordable housing; six regulatory and non-regulatory pathways: Policy, Strategy & Leadership, Land-use Planning, Building & Planning Regulations, Funding, and Education. 

The current system and its band-aid approach to affordability is not working. Change is long overdue. The state of flux caused by the pandemic presents an opportune moment to test new ideas. A call for collaboration between the new urban development not-for-profit-sector and the government sector can emerge as being drivers for this change. Through this will emerge a resilient and equitable system for housing at scale.