56% of Akld house costs due to land regulation

Finance Minister Steven Joyce

Long identified as one of the drivers of New Zealand’s price inflation, particularly in Auckland, the report’s findings are damning.

The report examined the impact of land use regulations on house prices in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown, as well as apartment prices in Auckland and Wellington.

It found that land use regulation is hampering the flexibility of housing supply to respond to demand pressures from population growth.

“Land use regulation could be responsible for 15 to 56% of the cost of an average dwelling across a range of New Zealand cities,” it said.