Richard Prebble: How to fix the housing crisis 17 Mar, 2021 04:24 AM 5 minutes to read Housing is a crisis in both demand and supply. Photo / File NZ Herald Here is why we have a housing crisis. It took 133 years for New Zealand's population to reach three million. Thirty years to reach four million and just 17 years to reach five million. We are trying to stuff an extra million people into the country. The nation did not build the housing or infrastructure for an extra 59,000 people a year. Read More Planning restrictions made it harder to build. In 1974, when Roger Douglas was minister of housing, 37,919 new homes were consented. By 2011, housing consents had more than halved to 14,000. We are only now returning to the number of building consents we had half a century ago.