7 Aug 2024

A history of New Zealand housing affordability

From Nights, 10:30 pm on 7 August 2024

New Zealand's rates of home ownership are at their lowest in almost eighty years.

A Deloitte report found only sixty percent of households actually own the house they live in, and that rate could get even lower in the next few years, with the cost of housing among the highest in the OECD.

What has changed in New Zealand society, that the once-affordable 'quarter acre dream' is now so far away for such a sizeable part of the population?

Charles Waldegrave is the coordinator of the Family Centre Social Policy Research Unit. He's also a former member of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group. and recently authored a report for the Waitangi Tribunal on Māori home ownership.

He joins Todd Zaner.

Charles smiles at an interviewer off-screen. He wears a collared shirt and a grey blazer.

Photo: Supplied