ACT says New Zealand's ability to fix its housing crisis must be focused on boosting supply as the party unveils its plan to "bring back the Kiwi dream".
Party leader David Seymour said the country needed to "set a target for supply" and that Labour and National were "equally responsible" for "demand-side policies that aren't working".
"Many young New Zealanders have simply given up even aspiring to own their own home, because the price is out of reach," he said.
Political Editor Jessica Mutch McKay was with the party in Auckland.
"Tax changes, loan-to-value ratios, first home grants, and foreign buyer bans have not dealt with the underlying shortage, just tried (and failed) to ensure that politically favoured people ended up with more of the limited supply of housing available.
"We need to build like the boomers.
"Combining housing shortfall forecasts from the New Zealand Initiative and Infometrics with attrition estimates, ACT says 51,000 new homes will be needed every year for the next five years.
"In order to fix a housing crisis, governments need to commit to doing things differently. Labour, and National before them, have tinkered around the edges.
"But building costs are still too high, and there is still too much unnecessary red tape, which is why New Zealand ends up with such high house prices."
ACT said its plan to "bring New Zealand back to its building heyday" would involve:
- "Comprehensively overhaul Resource Management laws based on property rights — meaning you have the right to develop your property and the only objections arise if you harm other people’s enjoyment of their property.
- "Shake up infrastructure funding, including sharing over a billion dollars of GST revenue with local councils based on their building consent activity and allowing targeted rates to fund infrastructure on new developments.
- "Allow builders to opt out of the council building consent regime so that they can use more innovative techniques and materials to improve affordability and quality.
- "Use building insurance as an alternative to building consent authorities, and use Codes of Practice to reduce the need for consents, saving time and money."
Too many young Kiwis giving up on owning home - ACT
Deputy leader Brooke Van Velden said: “I hear from too many young New Zealanders who have given up on owning their own home.
"They shouldn’t have to, with the right policies any Kiwi who works hard and saves should be able to own their own home one day."
Seymour continued: "From 2000-2019 the price of housing rose 171% faster than inflation. Young New Zealanders might not even realise that things weren’t always this way.
"Young New Zealanders might not even realise that things weren’t always this way. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, home building rates consistently exceeded eight homes per thousand people per year, even peaking at 13 in 1974.
"In the wake of that period, home ownership rates peaked, in 1986, at 74%. By 2018, home ownership rates had fallen from three quarters to under two-thirds, at 64.5%.
“It’s not hard to see why rates fell, from the 1980s onwards the number of homes being built has declined. In the 1980s and early 1990s, home building rates dropped to around six new homes per thousand people being built each year. After the Great Financial Crisis, they fell below four new homes per year, per one thousand people."
ACT's calls for housing supply come after its vehement opposition to Labour and National's bipartisan Medium Density Residential Standards — established in 2021 — which intended to encourage house building.
National backed out of the bipartisan accord this year after community backlash, whilst ACT was the only party to reject the legislation from the outset.
Dubbed by some as the "townhouse bill", the sweeping new rules allowed developers to build more medium-density homes, like townhouses, within existing urban areas.
Some criticised the move to change the party's policy.
It allowed developers to build up to three homes, up to three storeys, on most sites without the need for resource consent — attracting loud opposition from some communities.
In its policy today, the party affirmed its original opposition to the agreement.
"As well as a recognition of private property rights, ACT also believes property owners’ legitimate expectations, established through years of law and practice, should be respected," the party's policy read.
"ACT was the only party to originally oppose imposing the Medium Density Residential Standard across the entire country, because we knew it would create enormous conflict within the community."
The party instead suggests the policy should be replaced by Auckland’s Mixed Housing Suburban zone which "still allows more intensification than the status quo, but with design standards that are sympathetic to existing neighbourhoods and property owners".
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