FILE - A house is for sale in Christchurch, New Zealand, Aug. 13, 2018. New Zealand's government introduced sweeping measures to free up land for new homes on Thursday, July 4, 2024, pledging to"flood the market" with opportunities to build houses, and scrap rules for minimum floor areas and balconies in apartments.
“It’s very easy for local councils to say no to growth because their residents don’t want it, because they don’t benefit from it, but the costs of those decisions are falling on central government,” said Stuart Donovan, a housing economist with the New Zealand thinktank Motu, who was speaking from Brisbane, Australia.
But in a country where housing stock is comprised overwhelmingly of single-family, standalone dwellings, efforts by lawmakers to cool prices before have at times been cautious. Favorable tax conditions have made housing the most popular form of investment in New Zealand, with half of all household wealth bound up in land and homes, according to the country's Reserve Bank — and some voters have rejected measures that would lower prices.
The new measures would not flatten the market, Eaqub said; New Zealand’s shortage of homes was so great that it would still take decades to resolve. But he was among many analysts to welcome the shift.