7. Question No. 7—HousingDr HAMISH CAMPBELL (National—Ilam) to the Minister of HousingQuestion No. 7—Housing7. Dr HAMISH CAMPBELL (National—Ilam) to the Minister of Housing: What recent announcements has been made about making it easier to build houses in New Zealand?Hon CHRIS BISHOP (Minister of Housing): Many including the coalition Government's granny flat policy; but specifically earlier this month proud to announce the Government's Going for Housing Growth policy or at least the first stages of it allowing our cities to grow both up and out. Housing in this country is too expensive because we've made it difficult for our cities to grow. Fixing our housing crisis will improve our economy improve intergenerational equity decrease material hardship and it will help the Government get the books back in order. We will be setting housing growth targets through this plan making councils make more land available for development. We're going to improve infrastructure funding and financing and incentivise councils to grow.Dr Hamish Campbell: What specific changes have been made as part of this Going for Housing Growth announcement?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: I announced earlier this month six changes we'll be making as part of pillar one of this plan. Firstly the establishment of housing growth targets for tier 1 and 2 councils. Secondly new rules requiring cities to be allowed to expand outwards at the urban fringe. Thirdly a strengthening of the intensification provisions of the National Policy Statement on Urban Development. Fourthly new rules requiring councils to enable mixed-use development in our cities. Fifthly the abolition of minimum floor area and balcony requirements. And sixthly new provisions making the medium-density residential standards rules optional for councils. These six changes are just the start. There is much more to do around infrastructure funding and financing and incentives and across the broader resource management system more generally.Dr Hamish Campbell: How will the Government's housing growth targets work?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: The targets will apply to 24 city district and unitary councils across New Zealand including Auckland Christchurch and Wellington as well as Tauranga Hamilton and Dunedin. They will require councils to live-zone" feasible development capacity to provide for at least 30 years of housing demand at any one time. Our aim is to flood the market with opportunities for development drive down land prices and the cost of housing. We also need to have confidence that the demand for housing is not being understated by councils or that the amount of available and feasible development capacity is not being overstated. We'll therefore be introducing a range of new requirements to better understand how councils model these things for their plans.Dr Hamish Campbell: What impact does he expect the Government's abolishment of minimum floor areas and balcony requirements to have?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: Well the abolition of these requirements will have a positive impact and allow for more affordable housing. Some councils set minimum floor area and balcony requirements which can significantly increase the cost of new apartments and lower the supply of lower cost apartments. They can make some developments uneconomic or push the cost of housing outside the reach of first-home buyers. For example in 2015 in the Auckland market the balcony size requirements increased the cost of an apartment by $40000 to $70000 per unit. Now there are some people in the media who've expressed concern about "shoebox apartments" or "slums". And I say to them this: it is true that smaller dwellings won't be the right solution for everyone but one thing is definitely true: something that is smaller than a so-called "shoebox apartment" is a car or a tent or an emergency housing motel room. And this Government is focused on fixing the mess we inherited from the last Government."