Contrast with the Statistics NZ figure which is the widely reported number of 10,051 building consents being issued for the same period. That’s a 3,000 shortfall. Interesting.

On the demand side, immigration alone (i.e. not including natural/organic population growth) for the same period, 36,753 net migrants chose Auckland as their home. That’s an extra 3,050 people per month.

1,000 new houses/month needed to meet the demand

On the supply side we have under 600 houses per month being built and released to the market. On the demand side, we have about an extra 3,000 new people per month not including natural growth arriving into Auckland.

That’s 5 people per new dwelling. And we haven’t even accounted for natural population growth. This is alarming, given that the average household in Auckland is 3.0.

To maintain the existing shortfall we needed to have built 1,000 new houses per month at a minimum, just to keep up with the current shortfall.

The implications are going to be more demand for less supply. There is only one way prices can go in the long term. It’s Economics 101. And unfortunately unless we all take ownership and responsibility to solve the chronic shortfall, the situation will only get worse.