Auckland's unaffordable housing won't change unless the New Zealand government helps build homes, a Salvation Army social policy analyst says.
The Salvation Army's State of the Nation report, released on Wednesday, says housing availability is getting worse and affordability is a real problem in Auckland, where the median-priced house costs more than 10 years of the average gross wage or salary.
The NZ government has made some moves to fast track housing along with councils, in particular opening up some more land and cutting compliance times and costs.
But the Salvation Army report's author, Alan Johnson, says he's doubtful the policy will make much difference because most new homes being constructed aren't affordable.
He says when housing was affordable in the past, the government helped people buy homes and were active in building.
"They weren't necessarily building them directly, but they were active in directing their construction," he told AAP.
"We just think the government and the councils need to be more hands on, and the government needs to have realistic budgets and not just simply throw a few tens of millions of dollars at a problem which is really a billion dollar problem."
Labour's policy is for the government to build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 years, a policy which Mr Johnson said could be costly.
He said people needed to be realistic about what the cost could be, and said it was likely to take 10 years to put a major dent in the problem.
