新西兰Poor planning at root of housing crisis (from NBR)

在新西兰

Planning systems need an overhaul if New Zealand is to have enough land for housing.
In its report Using Land for Housing, the Productivity Commission says rapid increases in the average price of residential land reflect councils’ inability to zone and service enough land to meet demand.
Commission chairman Murray Sherwin says councils need to break land bankers’ habit of hanging on to their property because there is more money to be made from simply holding it instead of using it.
He says urban planning is not set up to respond to land bankers nor market signals from sharply increasing prices. “Soaring house prices are a clear indication that rising demand for housing is not being met with rising supply. This needs to change.”
In Auckland, land is now five times more expensive than it was 20 years ago, contributing to high housing costs, shutting aspiring owners out of the market, narrowing the type and quality of housing choices, leading to overcrowding, and creating barriers for people wanting to move into cities where there are more jobs and higher incomes.
Mr Sherwin says the most important thing councils and the government can do is committing to the release and servicing of more land and bringing land price inflation under control.
“If councils are unable to make this commitment, then central government will need to step in and make it happen,” he says.
“The government should set a limit for land price inflation that clearly signals to councils, landowners and developers the conditions under which it would intervene to make more land available.”
Mr Sherwin says there are many obstacles to the supply of land, including local homeowners opposing developments they believe could decrease the value of their houses, change their neighbourhoods or increase rates.
“Many councils prefer to house their growing population through greater density within existing city boundaries. However, some planning rules are inhibiting that increased density.
“Where a city has barriers to both growing up and growing out, the inevitable response is higher housing prices.”
The Commission makes a number of recommendations to overhaul planning so it meets demand, including better cost-recovery for infrastructure, proper cost-benefit analysis before planning rules are introduced, and more support from central government to help councils develop higher-density housing on inner-city sites.
“A sufficient supply of land for housing, an adequate supply of affordable housing, and the effective functioning of our cities, are topics of national importance,” Mr Sherwin says.
“Central government has a legitimate interest in resolving those issues where local councils cannot.”
NBR reporter Jenny Ruth talks to Mr Sherwin about the recommendations, some of the reasoning behind them and how likely the government and councils will adopt them.


可能中央政府要从 地方政府手上 拿走land planning权力的 舆论宣传。。。。。。。。。。。。。




评论

Land Use Planning 從來不是地方政府可以完全獨斷獨行的行為 中央政府一直有透過一系列的 National Policy Statements  多年來不斷修改Resource Management Act 以經濟發展壓環境保護   交通部對公路/鐵路的規劃和撥款   甚至以國家級 Environmental Protection Agency 這種龐然大物來指引甚至凌駕/奪取地方政府在審批大型基建/土地利用的權利  這不存在拿走不拿走的問題

這裡說的只是Council 對住宅房子設計的規限過多/密度要求太低導致建房難  密度低不足夠解決房子供不應求的問題 但就算是中央政府真的有這個閒心去發出指引甚至命令地方政府刪掉這些規範  或者甚至將土地使用審批權奪過來  這樣做中央政府只會將社區由於發展對環境/社區的負面影響的民怨由地方政府燒到自己身上 -  這是白痴才會做的事情