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As the election gets closer, there is no doubt that immigration remains a potent campaign issue. Few other topics elicit such an emotional response as the questions of who should come to New Zealand or, indeed, how many should come. Read more
Last week Minister for the Environment Amy Adams piled into the Auckland Council over the Unitary Plan, saying the rule set was unlikely to come close to delivering the 300,000 plus houses the city needs over the next 30 years. The minister noted that the plan imposed even more red tape on the already regulation-choked sector, and if anything, was likely to worsen housing affordability in Auckland. Read more
Wellington (17 June 2014): Local councils looking to tackle housing affordability and congestion by limiting land supply will only make the problem worse, according to the latest research report from The New Zealand Initiative. The report, Up or Out? Read more
Economist Edward Glaeser, ranked as one of the profession's top 50 practitioners, summed-up 40 years of transport economics at Harvard University in four words when he was visiting Wellington last year: "Bus good, train bad." Glaeser's argument is centred on the risks of bus versus rail. Rail is capital and land intensive as you need to buy the land at market prices in order to put a track on it. Read more
At a recent Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) event on housing affordability, the most telling moment came when economist Arthur Grimes said: “You can have big cheap cities, or small expensive cities, but just don’t say you can have small and cheap.” This statement seemed to come as a surprise to some, particularly Auckland Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse, who appeared to strongly disagree with Grimes’s position. Her reaction is understandable given that the Auckland Plan aims to deliver affordable housing by increasing the population density of the city. Read more
Wellington (4 June 2014): The New Zealand Initiative has expressed concern about a Fairfax Media report today that the RBNZ is not ruling out restricting mortgage lending according to household income multiples. Such a policy is currently being considered by the Bank of England under its new governor Mark Carney. Read more
An Insights reader recently wrote in with a thoughtful question: how could we advocate for the release of land in New Zealand cities as a means of tackling the housing affordability crisis and promoting economic growth? They noted that continued growth, driven by population expansion, is not sustainable in the long term. Read more
Wellington (20 May 2014): The New Zealand Initiative has expressed disappointment that proposed reforms of Resource Management Act (RMA) have been abandoned, calling it a missed opportunity to address skyrocketing housing costs. The National Party’s bid to overhaul the legislation was stymied after coalition partners United Future and the Maori Party withdrew support for the reforms citing environmental concerns. Read more
Competition is a transformative force and is responsible for shaping everything from biology to the economy. Governments have set up institutional bodies to foster and encourage it. Read more
Imagine a business that could charge anyone who just happened to pass by its shop window. Does that sound like a business that would strive to become better, more customer-friendly, and more service-oriented? Read more