Avo on toast: the videos

Why are New Zealand houses so unaffordable?

The idea of making a documentary about NZ’s housing crisis was brewing in my head for years.

Over the years I’ve been working on regional economics, I have learnt how important housing is in determining social and economic outcomes. While I was no housing expert, I was feeling frustrated with how affordability issues were being reported in (most) NZ media.

In 2020 I had had enough, and decided to make a documentary to lay out (as clearly as possible) a more comprehensive picture of why NZ’s housing had become unaffordable for so many Kiwis, and what might be done to alleviate this situation.

Through work and study, I already knew some economist researchers that were experts in this field, so me and a friend grabbed a camera and start contacting them.

Making the documentary was much harder than I imagined. This meant only having 3 interviewees, instead of the 10 to 20 I initially thought I’ll have. I now have a huge appreciation to anyone working in the movie industry, especially editors!

Through making the videos, I learnt just how much the factors behind the crisis are structural, and how important are things I wouldn’t have otherwise considered to be relevant (e.g., NZ’s retirement system , local government financing).

I would love to do more documentaries about other economic issues in New Zealand. There is so much knowledge held by the different members of this community, and I think documentaries are a good way to share them more widely!

The previews above link through to the 3-part series on YouTube, featuring interviews with Arthur Grimes, Andrew Coleman and Eric Crampton. Each part is around 11 minutes long. Enjoy!

By Eyal Apatov