Claims Auckland's problems with "ghost homes" may be overstated
Claims Auckland's problems with "ghost homes" may be overstated
1 August 2021
Around 40-thousand houses in the city sat vacant during 2018 Census night - an 18 per cent increase since 2013.
Council planning committee chair Chris Darby says it's a significant number of habitable homes not being utilised.
But Housing Minister Megan Wood says houses could be recorded as unoccupied in a Census for many reasons.
That includes homes being under renovation, between tenants - or that the owner was simply away for the night.
She pointed to a 2015 study by electricity company Vector, which suggests eight-thousand homes were left empty.
That meant they'd used less than 400-watts of power a day for 100 days.
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