It is now well-recognized that New Zealand has an aggregate under-supply of housing stock and that dwelling production will need to increase substantially if projected household formation is to be accommodated in the future.1 In political and public discourse under supply was for many years almost universally depicted as a problem of temporary lags in supply responses to demand. Rising house prices, and associated issues of declining housing affordability, were portrayed as symptomatic of that misalignment between aggregate supply and demand, in part due to New Zealand’s ‘rock star’ economy and attraction to migrants.