Opinion: 51 houses a day needed - let's stop the talk and build

Housing
Housing

Let's get on and build Auckland. Build it up, build it out. Let's get the hell on with it.

The Auckland Unitary Plan is out and I support it.

It's been four years in the making and in the meantime houses have almost doubled in prices and poverty has increased. 

The time for talk is over.

Now we must find the builders and get on with it.

In a snapshot Auckland needs more houses than all the experts thought.

For every 120 people arriving in Auckland, the city provides housing for just 80.

No wonder people live in garages, cars and parks. .

Auckland needs 422,000 houses over the next 30 years, not 239,000 as first thought.

Auckland needs 131,000 houses in the next seven years just to keep up with demand.

That's 51 houses built each and every day. The city needs a massive building stimulus. Bigger than anyone thought or predicted.

Twenty-two percent of single homes have now been re-zoned for intensification. That will upset some in the leafy suburbs around Herne Bay and the North Shore, and expect fierce opposition still.

A lot of all this is happening in inner-city suburbs.

But Auckland must do all this. There's no point just focusing on sprawl - the city's roads are already stuffed. We must go up and out. And out we will go too - the urban boundary will be extended.

The Salvation Army has supported the plan today saying it may help some low income people get into houses.

Len Brown is right, people have had ample time to talk. I see no decent reason not to get on with it. And get on with it we must.

This must not be blocked or slowed down now. Auckland has an acute housing crisis and shortfall and we must all play our part in fixing that.

Newshub.