are so far meeting their objective of helping to restrain the demand for housing while supply gradually catches up. in so doing, we believe the restrictions are mitigating the systemic risk of a housing market downturn that becomes more likely as house prices and debt levels become more stretched. we also believe that the lvr restrictions have helped to make banks ’ balance sheets more resilient to any adverse housing market shock. i will come back to the lvrs shortly. 5. the supply gap remains large demand is only one side of the story. supply conditions are a very important influence on housing market outcomes. in its report on housing affordability, the productivity commission ( 2012 ) identified a number of supply factors – including restrictive urban planning, and the time and costs associated with development and construction – as factors constraining new housing supply in new zealand. an important constraining factor has been the availability of land, particularly in auckland. section prices more than doubled in auckland between 2000 and 2012 and, for sections within 25 kilometres of inner city auckland, land prices tripled. 2 as a consequence, land costs now comprise 60 percent of the cost of building a new dwelling in auckland, compared with 40 percent in the rest of the country. low rates of building in auckland since 2005, combined with ongoing population growth, have led to a physical shortage of houses. population - per - dwelling is estimated to have risen considerably in auckland over the past few years ( figure 5. 1 ). while the size of the current housing shortage is uncertain, based on data from the 2013 census of population and the house price data from property iq gives a more lagged picture, but has slowed down even more than the reinz data, suggesting the change in sales composition may have caused the reinz index to somewhat understate the slowing in house prices. ministry of business, innovation and employment ( 2013 ), “ residential land available in auckland ”. bis central bankers ’ speeches dwellings, it is now estimated to be between 5000 and 10, 000 dwellings. this is lower than earlier estimates, but still material. in christchurch, a significant shortage of accommodation also exists following the canterbury earthquakes. around 10, 000 homes need to be completely rebuilt and a further 12, 000 require major repairs ( greater than $ 100, 000 in value ). 3 the physical shortage of housing in christchurch has been exacerbated by the extra demand for accommodation by construction workers. this has resulted in annual rent inflation of about 11 percent in

our intended policy approach, which we publish. for example, we have consulted in recent years on the prudential liquidity framework, basel iii, the macro - prudential policy framework, insurance solvency standards and payments oversight proposals. our act requires us to consult with the banks before we impose conditions of registration, and also requires us to publish regulatory impact assessments of proposed ( financial ) policy changes. the act identifies these as accountability statements. the public ( and financial sector ) are engaged in decisions about our policy framework before they are made, and we can and do modify our approach in response to feedback. how do we compare? the bank puts considerable communication effort into promoting understanding, and accepting the ensuing challenge and debate. this year we have given 17 on - the - record speeches ( including this one ), up from eight last year ; 90 off - the - record addresses ( c. f. 93 in 2012 ) ; on top of many other forms of communication, from our formal quarterly monetary policy statements and six - weekly official cash rate ( ocr ) announcements to research reports, webcasts, videos, newspaper articles, parliamentary committees, academic engagement, business talks and regional presentations. we make analysis and research accessible to wider audiences through such vehicles as the reserve bank bulletin, and publish specific analytical pieces of work underpinning our decision - making via analytical notes. quarterly monetary policy statements set out our analysis and understanding of the economy and its expected future path, as well as the risks of variation from that path. other commentators may make different judgements and come to different views about likely economic behaviours, but we would be disappointed if they were not able to understand the reasoning behind our own monetary policy decisions. we have been communicating with increasingly wide audiences via expanding channels ; yet demand for more engagement continues to grow. the news media and political appetite are extensive8. however, we require substantial disclosure of information by the institutions themselves. while we have no long - term time series for comparison, media references to the reserve bank have been running at over 1000 per month during the introduction of lvrs, compared with 500 – 700 earlier in the year when the open bank resolution initiative was being discussed. bis central bankers ’ speeches table 1 compares new zealand against a number of other countries on a range of measures of ( monetary policy ) information disclosure. there is much similarity in practice, with a few notable differences. new zealand, along with sweden and norway, is in the small minority of central banks