New survey of over 5,000 New Zealanders finds housing costs now drive sacrifice
across health, food, and family life.
AUCKLAND – 7 April 2026 – More than one in four New Zealanders delayed medical care last year because of what they pay for housing. One in four skipped meals.
This is a choice faced by ordinary households – renters, moderate-income families, and first-home aspirants – caught in a housing system that consumes too much of their income and offers too few alternatives. It is not limited to people living in extreme poverty.
The second annual New Zealand Housing Survey®, released today by urban strategy consultancy The Urban Advisory (TUA), draws on the experiences of 5,232 New Zealanders surveyed between August 2024 and January 2026. It is the most comprehensive demand-side housing dataset in Aotearoa.
Its findings are unambiguous.
“The sacrifices revealed in this data are not a cost-of-living story. They are an ongoing story about housing system failure,” says Dr Natalie Allen, Co-Founder and Director of TUA. “We are now two years into this survey, and the patterns are not changing. They are hardening.”
What the survey found:
- 50% of respondents worry they cannot pay for housing in the future.
- 45% are dissatisfied with the housing options available to them.
- 27.8% delayed medical appointments because of housing costs.
- 25.3% skipped meals.
- 91% say housing costs too much relative to income.
- 76% rank safety from natural hazards as the most important property feature — above price and outdoor space.
The tenure divide
The survey’s sharpest finding concerns the gap between two types of tenure: owning and renting. While 90% of homeowners feel stable and secure in their housing, only 57% of renters say the same. Renters also report colder and damper homes, lower energy efficiency, and less control over their living conditions.
Critically, the survey finds that New Zealanders are not dissatisfied with renting as a way of living. They are dissatisfied with the quality and insecurity of the rental homes available to them. Renting is a viable tenure option — but only if the product improves.
“Renters are paying more for less,” says Allen. “That is a structural failure with nationwide implications, not a set of unfortunate individual circumstances.”
Deposits, not repayments, lock people out
Using a Residual Income Model which integrates deposit levels, lending constraints, stress-tested rates, and age-adjusted mortgage terms, the survey shows that, while many moderate-income households would be able to afford mortgage repayments, they cannot accumulate a deposit. Although recent OCR cuts have reduced monthly costs, they have done nothing to address the deposit gap.
A demographic shift the market is not ready for
Nearly half (49%) of people planning to retire in the next ten years expect to downsize. Most plan to stay in the region where they currently live. Yet the market offers very few well-located, accessible, compact homes at the quality and price this cohort needs. This is not a niche problem: it is one of the strongest signals of future housing demand in the dataset.
The commercial opportunity
Fifty-two percent of respondents want more secure, long-term rental options. The market delivers almost none at scale. Internationally proven models such as Build-to-Rent, shared equity, cooperative housing, community land trusts, progressive ownership, and new-generation retirement living, remain undersupplied in New Zealand, despite clear and growing demand.
“There is a large and growing segment of demand that the current market is not serving,” says Greer O’Donnell, Co-Founder and Director of TUA. “Diversifying New Zealand’s housing stock is now both a social necessity and a commercial imperative.”
For developers, iwi, councils, government agencies, and investors, the survey data offers a precise evidence base: which typologies are in demand, where, and for whom. The Urban Advisory is using the dataset to reduce risk and align investment with real household need.
Download the survey
You can find the full survey, as well as additional supporting imagery, here: https://www.theurbanadvisory.com/research/the-new-zealand-housing-survey-year-2-survey-results
About The New Zealand Housing Survey®
The New Zealand Housing Survey® is an independently administered, annually repeated national study. The 2026 dataset drew on 5,232 respondents aged 16 and over, surveyed across Aotearoa between August 2024 and January 2026. The survey methodology underwent academic peer review, Te Ao Māori cultural review, and multiple rounds of user testing. All responses are fully anonymised.
About The Urban Advisory
The Urban Advisory is an Aotearoa New Zealand urban strategy consultancy, established in 2016, working with developers, iwi, councils, and government to deliver better housing and urban development outcomes.
