Unaffordable housing is not a unique problem internationally, nor is it new. The problems have been brewing for decades and many of the solutions have been proposed for an equally long time and widely discussed.

Despite this acknowledgment of the issues, the solutions have either not been implemented or not been implemented well. The United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, the countries we look to for policy direction, have all had successive property booms that have led to severely unaffordable housing. The frustrations in New Zealand are mirrored in other places.

New Zealand and many of the other countries facing severely unaffordable housing have also experienced the challenges of slow housing supply in the past, notably in the post-war period. Back then, the government response was highly interventionist.