Five Auckland suburbs will get a $1.4 billion chunk of the Government's $3.8 billion Housing Acceleration Fund to enable 16,000 homes.
The $1.4 billion will support around 400 urban renewal projects in Auckland's Mt Roskill, Mangere, Tāmaki, Oranga and Northcote, Housing Minister Megan Woods said on Thursday.
The funding is expected to develop build-ready land to enable up to 16,000 homes in the suburbs over the next five to 16 years.
It will also allow for the replacement of around 4000 state homes and 2000 additional state homes, as well as 10,000 additional affordable and market homes to be built and available for purchase.
"It's also estimated the infrastructure work will unlock potential for a further 11,000 new homes on surrounding privately owned land in these suburbs," Woods said.
"Revitalising these suburbs through this investment has so many benefits; creating capacity for new homes, employment opportunities, improved water assets and a lot of potential for emissions reduction with the suburbs already being well served by public transport options."
Auckland has an estimated housing shortage of more than 25,000 homes. The $1.4 billion investment is expected to enable 5400 homes in Mt Roskill, 4400 in Tāmaki, 3800 in Mangere, 1200 in Northcote, and 1000 in Oranga.
The five Auckland suburbs already received $282 million from the Housing Acceleration Fund in September last year, to help pay for roads, pipes and other housing infrastructure.
Woods said at the time the Government and Auckland Council identified the suburbs as places where they wanted growth, particularly due to the public transport options available.
Prior to that, the Housing Acceleration Fund allocated $136 million to unlock capacity for an extra 2000 homes in eastern Porirua near Wellington, with the replacement of water infrastructure to service existing and future homes.
The Government announced last June that, in major urban areas such as Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, Christchurch and Hamilton, projects accessing the Housing Acceleration Fund would have to deliver at least 200 additional homes per development.
In smaller areas, projects are expected to deliver at least 100 additional homes. This applies to Whangārei, Rotorua, New Plymouth, Napier-Hastings, Palmerston North, Nelson Tasman, Queenstown and Dunedin.
The $3.8 billion Housing Acceleration Fund was announced in March 2021. It includes $350 million for the Māori Housing Acceleration Fund, and approximately $1 billion for the contestable Infrastructure Acceleration Fund, which is currently assessing applications.
What's happening in the property market?
CoreLogic's property market update on Wednesday showed sales activity finally slowing after prices shot up by 30 percent in 2021, sparked in part by historically low interest rates imposed by the Reserve Bank at the start of COVID-19 to stimulate the economy and lack of housing supply.
Property value growth rates have now definitely slowed, with the national average only up by 0.7 percent in March, the softest figure since values dropped by 0.2 percent in August 2020. The annual growth rate has also slowed to 23.4 percent.
The common drivers of the widespread post-COVID upswing in property values, including low mortgage rates and tight supply, are no longer in play, CoreLogic chief property economist Kelvin Davidson said.
Recent building consent figures show a continuing shift towards denser dwellings, with townhouses leading the charge rising by 108 percent per annum to 1842 consents in February, the second-highest monthly total on record.
Labour and National in October jointly announced a law change to speed up the process of forcing councils to allow more apartment blocks throughout the biggest cities.
Tier 1 councils - Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellington and Christchurch - must enable intensification in their plans by August 2022, brought forward by one year.
It will allow three homes up to three storeys to be built on most sites without the need for resource consent.
In the long-term, the Government is replacing the Resource Management Act (RMA), often blamed for holding back housing development due to its complexity, with three new laws this parliamentary term.
The intention is to consolidate more than 100 RMA policy statements and regional district plans into about 14, simplifying national planning.
