NZ has a $2.5b building defect problem. Will self-certification make it better or worse?

Hannah Peters/Getty Images New Zealand has no shortage of stark statistics that illustrate the scale of its housing crisis. Its average house value currently amounts to nearly six times the average household income. Around 20,000 households remain on the social housing waiting list, while the government spends billions of dollars each year on temporary accommodation. The country also has fewer homes per person than the OECD average, contributing to an estimated shortfall of tens of thousands of…