Australasian housing research links
New Zealand has developed close links with Australia on issues of housing policy and research, through its involvement with the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI).
Housing Corporation New Zealand's chief advisor on housing sector policy, Dr Blair Badcock, has been a member of the AHURI advisory panel for the past three years. Before him, the position was filled by Professor David Thorns, of the University of Canterbury.
Blair says the link provides New Zealand with access to the $2.5 million of research on housing conducted by seven geographically based research centres, each comprising a consortium of universities.
AHURI is funded by the federal and state governments, with member universities also contributing to the costs of the organisation. As far as Blair is aware, private research organisations are not involved in the university partnerships.
"It's their counterpart to our CHRANZ (Centre for Housing Research Aotearoa New Zealand). It was set up in this way about five years ago, and provides a different model for funding housing research."
He says Australia is now in a situation similar to that of New Zealand in the nineties of having to sell state housing stock. "So we can contribute to the Australian debate on policy and programmes. Their state agencies are facing the financial pressures that Housing New Zealand faced during the nineties."
There are significant differences. "We don't have the enduring homelessness. People will say it goes beyond rough sleeping. But we have nothing like the numbers of people rough sleeping as in comparable size Australian cities. It may be that the boarder's allowance, as part of the accommodation supplement, means we have less homelessness."
However, the other big difference is in overcrowding. "Crowding is not an issue in Australia, but it is here, both in private rentals and our own housing stock. So that's a point of difference."
In both countries, rates of home ownership are falling, "which is an interesting policy issue for both governments. People who miss out on home ownership could have a lifetime in the rental sector, so they have no accumulated savings for moving into retirement," Blair says.
"In New Zealand, we lack a lot of the contextual data. Australian research shows that about 45% of the people in the private rental sector have been in it for longer than 10 years. A generation ago, private rental was a springboard to owing your own house. That kind of access is being reshaped now. It's to our advantage to be able to draw on their research. There are differences. But there are enough similarities for it to be a benefit to us."
Blair will present a plenary address to the inaugural Australasian Housing Researchers' Conference in June in Adelaide on the differing housing policy settings currently operating in Australia and New Zealand.
