Search

Author:

Source:

Publication date:

Topics:

An overview of the Auckland economy for January 2019, in charts and graphs and with some commentary. Previous updates.

Author:

Source:

Publication date:

Topics:

The internet is an important and necessary tool in many aspects of everyday life – at the workplace, in education and training, and in social and civic life. Understanding Aucklanders’ current internet access, usage patterns and attitudes toward the internet assists the council, its partners, including council-controlled organisations (CCOs), central government agencies and stakeholders in the private sector, to develop policies and programmes bringing positive change in internet use in Auckland. *The World Internet Project Survey* The World Internet Project is a survey on internet use and digital adoption that has been conducted every two years since 2000.

Author:

Source:

Publication date:

Topics:

Safeswim’s digital signs provide real-time water quality and hazard information to Auckland beach visitors. The information helps Aucklanders to avoid hazards and becoming sick when swimming. However, our evaluation of the 2017/2018 Safeswim programme found that awareness of the new digital signs was low.

Author:

Source:

Publication date:

Topics:

Young adults who are not in employment, education and training (NEET) are at risk of becoming socially excluded with income below the poverty line and lacking the skills to improve their economic situation (OECD, 2017). Working together to address the issue of NEET youth has become a key focus of national and local government programmes and policies in many countries, including New Zealand. The Auckland Plan 2050 sets a clear direction for increased and targeted education, training and skill development in order to ensure that Auckland is prosperous with many opportunities and delivers a better standard of living for everyone (Auckland Council, 2018).

Author:

Source:

Publication date:

Topics:

Unsurprisingly, the biggest factors affecting house prices are population growth, (lack of) housing stock growth, and interest rate declines. Further, the population’s preference is for fewer people per dwelling (PPD) than in the past. This means that, all else equal, housing supply actually needs to grow faster than the population to keep prices stable.

Author:

Source:

Publication date:

Topics:

We know that housing affordability has declined considerably since 2012 for all income groups. But the impact has been varied across income groups – with middle-income groups facing the largest declines in affordability of late. At the cap price of $650,000, even Kiwibuild homes would only be affordable to the top 40% of Auckland households.

Author:

Source:

Publication date:

Topics:

Properties sell at a premium for having been upzoned or for being located in a designated special character area (SCA), but not both. Over the last few years, the observable premium for properties in SCAs has been falling, and the premium for being upzoned has been increasing. Thus, it appears that buyers are placing increased emphasis on what they can do with a property, and less emphasis on the designated special character of the neighbourhood.

Author:

Source:

Publication date:

Topics:

Consents for new dwellings are the highest they’ve been for 14 years and are approaching the highest ever, which is welcome news against a backdrop of a housing shortage of 46,000 dwellings. The mix of dwelling type has changed significantly, and the average dwelling size has plummeted, mostly due to budget constraints encouraging a switch from stand-alone houses to townhouses and apartments, but also due to changing patterns in apartment and townhouse size. Multi-unit dwelling construction requires a skill-set that differs somewhat to that required for stand-alone homes, and is more akin to non-residential building.

Author:

Source:

Publication date:

Topics:

Homelessness is an ongoing multi-dimensional challenge for policy makers in both the developing and developed worlds. In order to effectively provide homeless people with services and to reduce rates of homelessness policy-makers need to know the size and characteristics of homeless populations and how these populations are changing over time. In 2009 New Zealand adopted a definition of homelessness that drew on the European Typology of Homelessness and Housing Exclusion (ETHOS) developed by the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA) and the European Observatory on Homelessness (EOH).

Author:

Source:

Publication date:

Topics:

Auckland Council has been undertaking investigations into potential sources of contamination at beaches with known microbial water quality issues. Data from the Safeswim programme (www. safeswim.

Author:

Source:

Publication date:

Local board(s):

Topics:

In late 2017, a three-year Auckland Council pilot project was established to trial ways of giving the Waiheke Local Board – and by extension, the Waiheke community – greater influence over the decisions that affect life on the island. As part of the pilot project, an online survey was undertaken among Waiheke Island residents in April 2018. The survey was designed to identify the main issues that residents are concerned about, and to explore how well they feel the Waiheke Local Board, Auckland Council and Auckland Transport (AT) are addressing these issues.

Author:

Source:

Publication date:

Topics:

Auckland Council (and Auckland Regional Council prior to 2010) has been reporting overall water quality scores since 2007 using the water quality index (WQI) developed by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. Prior to the use of this index, water quality was reported using individual parameters. As individual parameters can show different trends (some increasing, some decreasing), it can be difficult to interpret what the overall state of water quality is.