Australia looks to Auckland to make housing affordable

Tuesday, 2 December 2025

A report cites Auckland as a model, noting that planning reforms there led to a 50% increase in building consents.

Australia is looking to Auckland for what to do to make housing more affordable.

A new report by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), released on Monday, said Australia could ease its housing crisis by embracing “gentle density” across its largest cities.

The report cites Auckland as a model, noting that planning reforms there led to a 50% increase in building consents and a 15 to 27% reduction in house price growth compared to what would have happened without the changes.

The report found that converting just one-in-four standalone homes in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth into dual occupancies could add nearly one million new homes, boosting supply by 9%

The PM says the Government is focused on making housing become more affordable with wages growing faster than house price inflation.

CEDA senior economist Danika Adams said current approaches to housing often focus on extremes—either high-rise towers or urban sprawl.

“But gentle density can deliver more housing in middle-ring neighbourhoods where people want to live, while making better use of existing infrastructure and transport networks,” she said.

To meet the Albanese Government’s National Housing Accord target of 1.2 million well-located homes by 2029, Australia needs to build 240,000 homes per year—something it has not achieved since 2016.

Some states are already taking steps, with NSW, Victoria and Western Australia rolling out reforms to boost supply in well-connected areas. But Adams said sustained, large-scale reform was still needed.

“Australia's population is forecast to grow by more than 14 million people over the next 40 years,” she said. “We must embrace gentle density in well-located areas, in addition to other forms of housing, to tackle Australia’s housing crisis.”