Young Aucklanders may not have to give up on the dream of home ownership, as long as they change their expectations.

That's the message from Auckland Council chief economist Chris Parker, to young people struggling to enter Auckland's housing market.

Mr Parker said the market will cool off in the next five to 15 years as supply starts to match demand.

He says people won't always be able to get a home when they want, where they want, how they want it, but home ownership will become more affordable.

"Someone can choose to own and live a lot further way than they want to, but I suspect those trade-offs will start to ease and become more palatable."

Chris Parker believes a tenants union could be an alternative to a compulsory warrant of fitness for rental homes.

He said conditions for tenants need to improve, as renting becomes a long-term reality for a growing number of Aucklanders.

The economist believes giving stronger legal protection could help improve their living conditions.

But he said a tenants union could also help tenants negotiate the own conditions flexibly, without the need for legislation.

"If they want to get a better deal for themselves through a rental warrant of fitness or better terms, they can negotiate that themselves."

The suburban-urban shift

Auckland may have to shift from suburban city to urban centre to accommodate a million more people over the next 30 years.

The council commissioned Mr Parker to produce an independent report on the housing supply.

It has welcomed the report, which includes 34 ways central and local government can address the shortage of housing.

Chief of strategy Jim Quinn says the city can't accommodate rapid population growth by continuing with the status quo.

"If we really want to change things we really have to have an aspirational view, rather than just thinking we can land somewhere and hope."

The report suggests a range of options the Government and Auckland Council could consider to address the housing crisis.

Those options include raising interest rates, increasing intensification, taxing undeveloped land and creating public-private infrastructure partnerships.

Jim Quinn says the report includes some ideas the council can use and others it cannot.

"Nobody's saying we should apply all of those tools, either Government or Council, because some of them cannot operate together."

Chris Parker's toolkit for the housing crisis

- Official cash rate (OCR), to influence interest rates
- Macroprudential regulation (tools already floated)
- Macroprudential regulation (tools not being actively debated in public)
- Capital gains (CG) tax
- Increase restrictions on foreign ownership of existing homes and residential land
- Restrict immigration
- Incentivise more migrants to locate elsewhere in NZ
- Subsidies for first-buyers
- Exempt GST for new homes commissioned by owner-occupiers
- Make renting more attractive — legislation
- Make renting more attractive — renter-led
- Increase greenfield land supply
- Permit more intensification in the Unitary Plan
- Reform the RMA to address issues for urban areas of national significance
- Ensure ‘Restricted Discretionary’ activity status is not less permissive than ‘Discretionary’
- Council stocktakes its land and allocates what it can to housing
- Local government sharing in revenue base linked to economic activity to help pay for infrastructure and services
- Targeted rates to fund and finance infrastructure for growth
- Tax the windfall gains that accrue to landowners from rezoning land for urban use to pay for infrastructure
- 'Lead’ public infrastructure providers also own/develop land to capture benefits
- Collaborative review of transport policy, legislation, planning, funding to ensure it supports Auckland’s housing growth
- Road pricing / congestion charging for roads
- Better infrastructure data to underpin analytics and management
- Private provision of infrastructure
- Sell down some assets to fund land investment to capture the benefits of infrastructure (support option #20)
- Reduce restrictions on small buildings
- Omit excessive restrictions on design unless benefits exceed costs
- Public sector research programme into social costs and benefits from planning
- Urban development agency, with outsourcing to the private sector
- Development at scale to support more competitive industry structure and regulatory reform
- Replace joint and several liability with proportionate liability
- Tax land to encourage development
- Provide data on residential construction investment opportunities to foreign investors
- Reduce restrictions on foreign ownership of non-urban land for timely residential development