Auckland housing trends changing

By ANNE BESTON

More Aucklanders than ever before are working from home, adult flatting is booming and the three-bedroom bungalow with mum, dad and the kids is on the wane, according to a new report.

The Demand and Supply of Housing in the Auckland Region report, done as part of Auckland Regional Council's job of picking future trends for the region's growth, compares statistics from the 2001 and 1991 censuses.

Author and ARC strategic analyst David Lindsey said the biggest issue facing Auckland was urban sprawl, despite an upsurge in housing densities in suburban and central Auckland.

"In 14 years Auckland will be full. We can't simply go on gobbling up land at the edges."

Auckland's councils would either have to allow rural land to go into housing or find a way to encourage developers to build closer to transport links and in a way that didn't impact too heavily on the environment.

"Those are the only two options. We can't put the 'no vacancy' sign up," Mr Lindsey said.

The report shows the number of people listing their home as also their business jumped 78 per cent from 2400 to 4260 over the past decade, the fastest-growing dwelling type.

While the three-bedroom home is still the most common, it is decreasing in comparison with other house sizes, from 50 per cent in 1991 to 46 per cent 10 years later.

And families with children is the slowest-growing household type, with two-parent families where at least one is aged under 40 decreasing over the past decade.

But families still make up an overwhelming majority, 62.7 per cent, of Auckland households.

Bigger homes and multi-family homes - including flatters - have jumped, with four- and five-bedroom houses doubling from 47,607 to 74,634 and multi-family households increasing by 73 per cent.

Mr Lindsey said the reason may be the changing ethnicity of Auckland's population and housing affordability. He said one of the trends that emerged from the report was that smaller and larger households were increasing at a faster rate than medium households.

"Adults flatting together has really taken off over the past 10 years," he said.

"A lot of people are taking up houses vacated by larger families so the predicted glut of larger homes might not happen."

The report also looked at population trends and found that in line with the national trend, Auckland's population is steadily ageing with 50 to 59-year-olds increasing 54 per cent since 1991, faster than any other age group.

The second-fastest growing group is the 80-plus age group, which has increased by 39 per cent.

While Auckland's population is relatively young by national standards, the second-youngest in the country after Gisborne, the population of 20 to 29-year-olds is virtually static and the 0 to fours is growing relatively slowly, at a rate of 13 per cent.