'Even well-off face lifetime of renting'
Updated 3:50PM Monday April 23, 2007
By Anne Gibson
Auckland is facing a housing crisis of massive proportions with more than 40 per cent of the population projected to be renting within the next nine years.
Even the well-off are faced with a lifetime of renting, locked out of homeownership by escalating house prices, a report released by property consultants DTZ today shows.
REPORT FINDINGS:
* Working households cannot afford even lower-end housing
* Renters including more families with children and older people
* Renting a lifestyle choice for those cannot afford suburbs of choice
* Homeownership down 8% between 1991 and 2001
* Projected to decline a further 7% to 58% by 2016
* An extra 50,000 rental properties required over 10 years
Home ownership levels are plummeting, wealthy people cannot afford a house and the city will need at least another 50,600 houses and flats in the next decade to meet the rising tide of demand from those barred from become property owners, the report says.
More
here .
Another article about
housing in Auckland .
And, on a slightly more
optimistic note ??