A State Housing Database: 1993-2009

Abstract

The 1990s saw a significant sell-off of state houses in New Zealand, while the 2000s saw a material rebuilding of the state house inventory. We provide in-depth documentation of a rich spatially-defined dataset of the stock, acquisition and disposal of New Zealand’s state houses since the early 1990s. The paper examines the dataset’s reliability and outlines major national and regional state housing trends since 1993. We detail the levels and changes in density of state housing in New Zealand’s major urban areas, and relate these measures to the areas’ deprivation status. The richness and completeness of the dataset, and the fact that it covers two distinct policy periods (driven primarily by exogenous political preferences), means that it can provide a strong basis for detailed studies on the societal and individual impacts of homeownership and related matters. We discuss future research possibilities that utilise this dataset.

Keywords: State Housing, Public Housing, Housing Assistance, New Zealand

JEL Classification: H42, H76, R31