Zoning for 1.6 million dwellings rather than two million in Auckland will still deliver the same number of homes, but they will be more expensive, a visiting planner says.
Author and urban planner Alain Bertaud has been touring New Zealand, delivering public talks and visiting with policymakers in Auckland and Wellington over the past week.
With a career spanning five decades — including a nearly 20-year stint as principal urban planner for the World Bank — Bertaud was considered a global leader in his field.
In February, Housing Minister Chris Bishop revised down his housing capacity requirements for Auckland, saying it would ensure growth happens in the “right places”.
Cabinet agreed to reduce the minimum capacity the supercity must zone for from approximately two million dwellings to 1.6 million.
Speaking to Q+A, Bertaud suggests a higher target, such as the two million figure, would enable more competition amongst developers, resulting in a lower price for buyers.
"This proposal is not to build two million houses. This proposal is to allow the market to work in a much larger area," he said.
Cabinet has agreed to reduce the minimum housing capacity the supercity must zone for from approximately two million dwellings to 1.6 million. (Source: 1News)
"The number of houses built will be exactly the same as 1.5 million - they will be slightly more expensive because you reduce the competition among landowners."
When he last visited New Zealand in 2014, Bertaud said he observed that constraints imposed by local and central government were fuelling a housing shortage.
"If you are in a very well-run city, a large number of people will say, well, if it's not broken, don't fix it. And they ... resist change," he said. "But there is a price to pay for that, and usually, this price is paid by the younger generation."
He believed urban planners should let the market meet demand for housing, rather than deciding where houses can be built and what they look like.
According to Bertaud, Auckland needs to build both "up" – high-density apartment blocks – and "out" – greenfield developments at the city limits – to accommodate a projected extra 700,000 residents by 2050. He cautioned both came with trade-offs.
“Going ‘up’ is slow,” he said. “If, overnight, all your regulations allowed you to build up to eight-floor buildings, anywhere, it will not change overnight.
"It will take probably even 10 years just to be seen as an effect on transport, and probably 15 years before it’s reflected in housing price.
“If your population is growing ... greenfields development is much faster.”
Now in his eighties, Bertaud has advised on highly planned cities in China and the Soviet Union, as well as bustling, "spontaneous" cities like Jakarta and New York, where the market has driven development.
He said cities should be viewed as labour markets first and foremost, where people have choices for where they want to live and work. A one-way commute in the city should never be more than an hour – and best kept to 30 minutes, Bertaud said.
For the full interview, watch the video above
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air
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