110, 000 for an apartment. the relatively high cost impost for apartments is due to a raft of height, area and other planning restrictions that appear to have contributed to the relatively low number of apartment consents in auckland over recent years ( fig. 4. 2 ). auckland also has a relatively low proportion of apartments compared to sydney : 25 percent versus 39 percent of total dwellings. while apartment construction has picked up recently, the evidence suggests that more active encouragement of apartment development could be an effective means of easing the housing supply constraint in auckland. figure 4. 2 : annual consent issuance in auckland source : statistics new zealand. providing the infrastructure for new developments is a slow and complex process, in part due to multiple service providers with often conflicting incentives and funding arrangements. 8 better collaboration and incentives across infrastructure providers is required for more efficient infrastructure planning and a better delivery of services. productivity commission ( 2014 ). grimes and mitchell ( 2015 ). in auckland for example, the auckland city council, watercare, vector, nzta and developers themselves are all involved in the provision of basic infrastructure. bis central bankers ’ speeches overall delays and uncertainties throughout the development process can have significant implications for the total cost of development and ultimately whether proposed developments proceed. the planning approval process to convert designated sha land to “ shovel - ready ” sections requires multiple approvals 9 and is estimated by the council to typically take over two years to complete in greenfield situations. for existing residential zoned ( brownfield ) areas, the time to achieve all approvals for multi - unit dwellings is in excess of a year. 10 further, capacity constraints in the construction sector could constrain further increases in housing construction in auckland over the next couple of years. the needed pick - up in auckland housing supply comes on top of the significant ongoing demands of the canterbury rebuild, which are not expected to ease for at least two years. also, employment in the construction sector now accounts for 6 percent of the working age population, similar to that seen in the mid - 2000s property boom. over the past year, vacancies in the construction industry have increased and construction firms have been finding it increasingly difficult to find skilled labour. construction cost inflation in auckland increased to 7 percent in the year to december 2014 ( figure 4. 3 ), highlighting the increasing resource pressure. figure 4. 3 : annual construction cost inflation by region source : statistics new zealand. 5. housing pressures are a threat to stability rising house price inflation, particularly in auckland

national bank chief executive ’ s employment contract be between that person and the board of the national bank, and that any amendments to the national bank ’ s constitution have our consent. the intent of these measures is to ensure that there is coherence in the national bank ’ s local accountability arrangements and that the local board remains in a strong position to exercise independent and meaningful governance of the management of the national bank, in the best interests of the national bank, in good times and in bad. this requirement should be seen as a means of reinforcing our emphasis on the role of directors in overseeing a bank ’ s operations, and our ability to manage a crisis involving the failure of any large bank in new zealand. third, we require all prospective appointments of directors or senior executives to the anz or the national bank to be advised to us and the appointments made only if we have no objection. this measure ensures that the appointment process is in line with our new obligation introduced by the rbnz amendment act to have regard to the suitability for their positions of directors and senior managers of registered banks. generally speaking we would be unlikely to object to an appointment unless there were strong reasons to believe the individual would be unsuitable for a position of responsibility over a registered bank. finally, we require that each registered bank in the anz group maintain a level of capital in line with our current policy on capital adequacy for consolidated banking groups. this tightens up the capital adequacy rules a little in this case, to account for the fact that the anz group now contains two systemically important registered banks. we regard it as important that each of these banks maintain adequate capital on a solo basis. we took these steps in pursuit of our statutory obligations to promote the maintenance of a sound and efficient financial system in new zealand, and to avoid significant damage to the financial system that could result from the failure of a registered bank. we don ’ t think the conditions will make a great difference to the current day - to - day running of the national bank ’ s operations under normal circumstances. however, we do see them as important in bolstering our ability to deal with a crisis situation involving the bank or the anz group. we sought to impose the conditions in a manner consistent with our general approach to banking regulation, which is not to get into the business of managing banks, but to put the onus for effective bank management on the shoulders of those bestplaced to carry that task - the