Agree about increasing housing stock. I think most people agree with this (although not all would agree it needs to be government led). Where people really disagree is on what increasing housing stock would look like, i.e. do we continue to build out, or do we build up. Auckland seems to be the only city that has properly embraced building up now, mostly because it was just practically impossible to build out any more. Everywhere else is half-assing it as best, due to fierce resistance.
There’s a bunch of people living in cities that they’d rather be towns than cities :) Heretaunga Hastings is working through stuff like that but has made a lot of progress. Lots of new infill developments are walking distance to the centre, there’s reasonable public transport and will be 2 story with small or no section. Sounds puny, but compared to most houses round here 2 stories is up, not out :)
They’re also trying to work on getting more apartment style stuff right in the centre as well, it’ll take a while and a fair bit of effort for folks to embrace it but proper cities are vibrant and exciting because people live and work in the middle of them.
Agree about increasing housing stock. I think most people agree with this (although not all would agree it needs to be government led). Where people really disagree is on what increasing housing stock would look like, i.e. do we continue to build out, or do we build up. Auckland seems to be the only city that has properly embraced building up now, mostly because it was just practically impossible to build out any more. Everywhere else is half-assing it as best, due to fierce resistance.
There’s a bunch of people living in cities that they’d rather be towns than cities :) Heretaunga Hastings is working through stuff like that but has made a lot of progress. Lots of new infill developments are walking distance to the centre, there’s reasonable public transport and will be 2 story with small or no section. Sounds puny, but compared to most houses round here 2 stories is up, not out :)
They’re also trying to work on getting more apartment style stuff right in the centre as well, it’ll take a while and a fair bit of effort for folks to embrace it but proper cities are vibrant and exciting because people live and work in the middle of them.