Auckland housing problems and the incredible solving approaches

250 dollars for one week sleeping in a garage or more than 2000 dollars for a incredible small emergency housing bungalow – a joke? No – sad but true reality in Auckland.

Due to geography restrictions, Auckland is just able to spread to the north or to the south, Eastern and Western suburbs are limited due to natural harbours. Auckland is New Zealand’s biggest city and the one with the highest immigration rate. The city is popular for kiwis as well as foreign immigrants. But everybody who moves to Auckland needs a place to live. Renting does not play a big role in New Zealand’s real estate market, kiwis want to own their own home.

Prices increased extremely even in more unpopular suburbs that quite a number of people are not able to afford a place to life. Either they have to life in their car or they have to look for alternative housing options. Ruthless landlords offer their garages for exorbitant prices or rent their land to the government, that installs emergency housing places on it and rent them for more than 1200 dollars a week.

But what are better solutions? Renting should become more beneficial for kiwis. Lately, a politician demanded for a law which governs the use of unused land in the city. A landlord who does not use his land should be forced to pay more taxes.

I think it is incredible that government makes profit from the need of people. They lend the money for those housing places to the people although they are not able to pay it back. Instead of using it for more social housing, even more pressure is put on those poor homeless people.