Unitary Plan will lock out key workers, housing providers say

In this article from the New Zealand Herald, Simon Collins reports on Community Housing Aotearoa and the NZ Housing Foundation’s appeals to councillors to reinstate an originally-proposed requirement for 10 per cent of homes in developments of more than 15 new dwellings to be affordable.

An independent hearings panel, whose recommendations will be voted on in council meetings starting on Wednesday, has deleted the 10 per cent requirement on the grounds that developers would be forced to raise the prices of the other 90 per cent of new homes to fund it.

Community Housing Aotearoa chief executive Scott Figenshow is reported in this article here and says that the extra homes to be developed in Auckland should improve affordability over time – but a 10 per cent affordable requirement “would give us affordable homes straight away”.