Making Homes Happen

Can you build an affordable house in Auckland? Media debate suggests that rising construction and land costs, together with the costs of meeting planning regulations, are making this extremely difficult. The debate, however, largely rests on either anecdotal evidence or modelled data. No-one has taken a good look at the actual costs of constructing affordable housing.

Beacon and NZIER have set out to provide a firm empirical basis for understanding the costs of delivering affordable new builds. Focusing only on Auckland (the plan is to extend this work to other areas in time), they gathered cost data from five builders / developers, covering 69 affordable and social homes built in 2015.

This report gathers empirical evidence of the actual costs of residential construction in Auckland, particularly the costs of affordable and social housing. It analyses data from 69 houses, ranging from one to five bedrooms, supplied by five developers / builders to build a framework called the ‘Cost Tower’. This comprised seven key cost component areas: Land, Land Development & Infrastructure Costs, Professional fees, Construction Costs, Council and Consenting Costs, Finance, Valuation and Real Estate Costs, and GST.

See the report here.