Housing: New Alliances, New Battlefields
Housing has been rising as a political and social concern in New Zealand. As public concern about housing issues has risen, the nature of...
Homes, Costs and Affordability: Then and Now
I was born in Auckland to baby-boomer parents. In 1972, they bought their first home in Peary Road, Mt Eden for $15,000 on an income of...
How not to do intensification - Auckland Unitary Plan style
With the public release of the independent panel’s Unitary Plan for Auckland, it’s worth considering how much density Auckland can...
How the Toyota i-Road can revolutionize Auckland transport
Modern planners in Auckland, and elsewhere, have been educated to believe in what is called 'transit-oriented development'. Basically,...
Housing Affordability: Economics 2
In the first article with a similar title the impact of house buyers on high incomes led to the increase in house prices because, among...
How do you kill a bad idea?
Here's an interesting thought. Imagine what would happen if the global warming scaremonger machine discovered that they'd made a...
Why didn’t Key allow more houses to be built?
Recently John Key’s administration has been accused of making Policy by panic because of it’s handling the housing crisis. A housing...
The Auckland Special Housing Accord: Success?
Auckland's Special Housing Accord will wind up at the end of September. When the final numbers are tallied we can expect Auckland Council...
Unitary Plan provides development capacity… and congestion
The one plan to rule them all has just been released and I think most would agree it has achieved what has become its major objective –...
Are minimum wage laws wrecking small town economies?
My claim is that minimum wage laws create an economic distortion that may be more severe than appears on the surface. They exaggerate...
