Land supply alone won't help housing affordability - Eaqub

Economist Shamubeel Eaqub says a new study reaffirms the terrible state of housing across New Zealand. The Demographia survey shows New Zealand is one of the most unaffordable countries in the world to buy a house, on average costing six times the median household income. None of the country's eight main property markets are considered affordable. Tauranga is worst with Auckland second. Opposition leader Simon Bridges says the failure of successive governments to overhaul planning rules is the main driver of unaffordability. "For the last 20 to 30 years we haven't been building enough small, modest, affordable houses. Just creating land supply isn't going to do it because the land we're creating now is too expensive," Mr Eaqub tells us.