Developers blame slow progress on lack of infrastructure

Residential housing. Photo / SNPA

Property developers say the failure to quickly resolve Auckland's housing crisis is not their fault - lack of infrastructure is one of the biggest impediments to more building.

Connal Townsend, chief executive of the Property Council, said one of the biggest blocks to creating new subdivisions was lack of adequate sewerage, stormwater and fresh water connections.

Those often needed to be upgraded from existing residential areas to vast new tracts of land to enable developers to put up the homes, he said. Until that happened, developers might have consents to build but they could not go ahead.

Lack of Resource Management Act reform, no mezzanine or second-tier finance, a labour shortage and the high cost of building materials were other factors stopping the rush to put up new homes, he said.

Labour's housing spokesman Phil Twyford asked whether developers were landbanking or sitting on their hands, while seeing their land rise in value.

Evan Davies, Todd Properties Group chief executive, also blamed infrastructure, expressing fears about "severe budgetary constraints" on the council's ability to keep pace with underground services and other infrastructure.

Housing Minister Nick Smith was tonight due to announce resource management reforms, expected to remove impediments to development, including house building.

Hugh Pavletich, co-author of the Demographia housing affordability survey out on Monday, said the Auckland accord was a dismal failure.

"Land is not being opened up fast enough and there is no progress at all on sorting out infrastructure financing."

Ree Anderson, the council's housing project director, said infrastructure was taken into account when special housing areas were zoned.

But some special areas still might need further infrastructure like a regional transport interchange.