Media Release from Cr Dick Quax

10 March 2013

Mayor admits Error on land availability

A media release from the mayor’s office confirms the just how dire the land scarcity situation in Auckland has become under Mayor Brown’s stewardship according to Councillor for Howick, Dick Quax.

The mayor claimed in October last year, on TV One’s Q&A programme that there were 18,500 sections ready for a builder to build a house on. He later modified that telling Radio New Zealand last month that there “are 15,000 sections ready to be built on today”.

Now a media statement released by his office acknowledges that there are “around 2,000 sections available now in greenfields areas”.

Cr Quax says this is an acknowledgement that the council has got it seriously wrong. The figures the mayor was using included land which had only bulk infrastructure to it. There are no internal services which will be required prior to development. Much of that land may not even be on the market right now.

“I have repeatedly challenged the mayor and officials to show me the land that it is claimed is ready to be built on. Now there is an admission that rather than 15,000 sections there are just 2,000 ready for construction to begin.”

“The restriction on land supply by council has incentivised speculators to acquire land within the metropolitan urban limits and land bank knowing that the artificial scarcity will result in huge profits.”

Notes:

· There were just 3,400 dwelling consents issued by the Auckland Council last year.

· In 2002 12,000 consents were issued

· There is a current housing shortage of about 20,000 dwellings in Auckland

· There is a need to build 12,000 dwellings in Auckland just to keep up with growth,

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