Auckland housing affordability has worsened and it remains one of the 10 least affordable big cities in the world.
Auckland's surging housing market is now only slightly cheaper than London but pricier than Los Angeles, Toronto, New York, Perth, Brisbane and Boston.
The latest Demographia survey, released today, compares prices with incomes in 378 cities, including 86 with more than one million people.
Auckland is one of the most unaffordable places due to its high house prices and low incomes.
Hong Kong ranks as the least affordable city in the world.
Auckland is the ninth most expensive big city, and 14th most expensive of all the 378 surveyed.
In 2013, the survey found the median house price in Auckland was $506,800 and the median household income was $75,200. This gave the city a total "median multiple" of 6.7 (house prices divided by incomes). Anything more than 3 is regarded as unaffordable.
Last year, Auckland's median price jumped to $561,700 but the median household income fell to $70,500, giving a median multiple of 8.
Now, the median house price has climbed to $613,000 and income to $75,100, giving a multiple of 8.2 and maintaining Auckland's top 10 spot for unaffordable major cities.
Property Council chief executive Connal Townsend blamed Auckland Council's planning regulations.
"We've got houses more expensive than LA. How is this possible? A dump in Pt Mad truths on home prices
Chevalier demands a million dollars, which gets you a mansion in Beverly Hills. We've reached the point of madness."
Survey authors Hugh Pavletich of Christchurch and Wendell Cox of the United States criticised the Government and Auckland Council for failing to ease affordability by vastly increasing housing supply via the Housing Accord and its 80 Special Housing Areas, but said the situation was bad in other areas too.
They blamed inadequate land supply, inappropriate infrastructure financing and "exasperating bureaucratic process bottlenecks".
"This year's survey rates Auckland housing at 8.2 times annual household incomes; Tauranga 6.8; Christchurch 6.1 (the same as New York); Wellington 5.2; Napier-Hastings 5.1; Hamilton 4.7; Dunedin 4.6 and Palmerston North 4.1 times.
"Overall, the major New Zealand metros are rated severely unaffordable at 5.2 times annual household incomes, far exceeding the affordable rating ceiling of 3 times."
But Building and Housing Minister Nick Smith said new residential construction data showed success.
"I just don't accept there's been no progress when the latest building consent figures confirm the fastest rate of new-house building in seven years in key centres like Christchurch, building consent rates doubling in the past 12 months and in Auckland growing about 30 per cent."
Dr Smith said housing affordability problems went back 25 years but the Government was planning additional reforms this year, particularly around the Resource Management Act.
Council housing project director Ree Anderson said Special Housing Areas had enabled the city to increase the supply of serviced land.
"SHAs are accelerating the rezoning of future urban zoned land to live residential zones and boosting the ready-to-go land supply for housing development."
Ms Anderson said the rezonings were required to be approved within six months once lodged with the council -- a radical departure from the slower RMA process.
Labour Party spokesman Phil Twyford said the Government's housing policy had failed. "Nick Smith has been minister for two years now, and under his watch housing affordability in Auckland has got worse. They have failed to significantly increase the supply of new homes. Consents are running at about half what Auckland needs just to stand still."
Sam Yin, whose Mandarin website hougarden.com promotes NZ properties for sale, said Chinese spent nearly US$37 billion on foreign residential property in 2013 and more should be encouraged to come here to build.
By Anne Gibson of the New Zealand Herald
