Is the housing crisis starting to turn around? Some signs point to yes

A 150-page report from Stats NZ has revealed homeownership has hit its lowest level since 1951.

In Auckland, ownership dropped from nearly 73 percent in 1991, to a touch under 50 percent.

The average house price, the report said, was roughly 11.5 times the median household income.

It’s been repeated so often it’s become conventional wisdom: getting onto the property ladder has never been so difficult in modern history.

However, there may be a shred of daylight amid the clouds of doom and gloom.

Building consents are on the rise.

The Resource Management Act – long seen as an impediment to people building their own houses – is in for a large-scale revamp.

Interest.co.nz reports new dwellings in Auckland are being completed at a higher rate than population growth.

So, are things starting to turn around?

On the latest edition of The Detail, Emile Donovan speaks to InfoMetrics director and senior economist Brad Olsen about how things got to this point; where they’re trending; and whether we need to move away from narratives of silver bullets and quick fixes, and recalibrate our expectations as to how long meaningful change will take.

Olsen says New Zealand tends to be very good at highlighting problems when it comes to housing – but less so when it comes to plans and solutions.