Signals of under-capacity: the practicalities of monitoring price signals under the National Policy Statement on Urban Development Capacity

A comprehensive draft version of this report informed evidence and monitoring policies in the National Policy Statement on Urban Development Capacity 2016 (NPS-UDC) and the implementation programme.  It has assisted in determining which indicators would best provide useful information, and what monitoring would be practical in terms of data availability, frequency, capabilities and costs.

The report includes an assessment 21 market indicators assessing them against criteria to determine usefulness and feasibility of monitoring them.  The report recommends that local authorities and central government monitor a package of ten of these indicators and includes an outline of methodologies for developing and interpreting the ten indicators.

The ten recommended indicators provide information about demand, supply, competitiveness of local land development markets, the impact of planning on price efficiency, and housing affordability.  The purpose of monitoring these indicators is to track the performance of the development market and to identify emerging issues of poor competition or market inefficiencies. 

While the indicators would not automatically trigger particular planning responses, they would signal a problem, provide information about the causes of that problem, and indicate when more development capacity may be needed.  This information would be frequent and timely.