The cost of housing

A new OECD report shows that New Zealanders pay more for their housing than most other developed countries. On average, New Zealanders spend 26% of their income on a place to live – either paying rent or paying a mortgage. The average for all OECD countries is 21%. People in Greece spend slightly more than we do – 27% of their income – while South Korea spends only 16% of their income on housing.

Of course this doesn’t tell us very much. New Zealand houses tend to be bigger than the average size house in the OECD countries with 2.3 rooms per person while the average for the OECD is 1.6 rooms per person. The OECD did not compare the size of houses or land.

House prices have risen more than 7% across the whole of New Zealand in the last year, especially in Auckland (12%) and Christchurch (9.4%). It is easy to explain why Christchurch house prices have gone up so much: so many houses have been demolished after the earthquakes. There is a shortage of houses in Auckland too. Many new immigrants and also people from other parts of New Zealand are moving to our biggest city for jobs. The cost of land has increased house prices. This is one reason for Auckland’s new housing plan. High-rise apartment buildings save on the cost of land.

Listen to May 1st 2013 to hear more the Auckland city plan.

Vocabulary

• OECD – Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development compares 50 developed countries
• mortgage – loan from the bank to buy a house (note pronunciation – the letter ‘t’ is silent)
• tend – move in that direction
• demolished – pushed down by bulldozers

Grammar

• Present tense for facts e.g. show, pay, spend
• Present perfect for something that started in the past and is true today e.g. have risen

Pronunciation

House (ends in s sound), houses (ends in ziz)

Questions

1. If you now live in New Zealand, how do houses here compare with houses in your country? Think of style, size, comfort level
2. What are some of the problems with average figures like average size or price?