Over the past two decades, New Zealand has experienced one of the largest house price increases among OECD countries, pushing up housing expenditure as a share of income to very high levels. Affordability for first-time buyers and renters has suffered, particularly in Auckland. This is a problem for well-being as it reduces household finances available for other uses, can harm health through various forms of deprivation such as poor nutrition, and adversely affects labour market inclusion. More...

Looking across the OECD’s well-being indicators, the average New Zealander has several reasons to feel cheerful: high employment, good air quality, and strong social support to name just a few. Yet, like every OECD country, there are still opportunities to improve. New Zealanders experience relatively low household income and housing affordability. Well-being outcomes such as health, education and income are unequally distributed. More...