Goff on foreign buyers; and Vote!

Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, October 3rd, 2016 - 5 comments
Categories: housing, local body elections, phil goff - Tags:

The story seems to be cast as Goff proposing a 15% tax on foreign buyers (the Vancouver model), when in fact he’d prefer foreign buyers only being able to invest in new housing (the Australian model), but at any rate he’s for action.

As he pointed out to Morning Report Auckland Council can’t do it itself (NZ councils actually have the least powers in the OECD), so it would require government action.  And while the National has ruled out an outright ban on foreign nationals buying existing housing, they’ve been more equivocal about a stamp duty.  So it’s probably a good pressure point to aim at, at least until we can get a Labour-led government.

Some economists seem less convinced, but it’s certainly had an immediate extensive effect in Vancouver, and other Canadian cities are all following suit (you’d just want to do it Aotearoa-wide here).  No-one believes the government figures that only 4% of sales in Auckland are to foreign buyers (it clearly doesn’t include people buying through NZ trusts or people on temporary visas), but even a small percentage of extra buyers can push prices up disproportionately.

Ultimately the big answer is more houses (Kiwibuild anyone?), but there isn’t a silver bullet in the short and medium term and we should do all we can across a number of fronts.  But all this government is good for seems to be inaction.

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While we’re on local government candidates – make sure you vote!  Several centres are at record low returns, so your vote will definitely count!  Stephanie has had a couple of great posts on working out who your good local candidates are.

5 comments on “Goff on foreign buyers; and Vote! ”

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  1. save nz 1
    3 October 2016 at 3:15 pm

    When faced with the candidates for Auckland and their neoliberal similarity, I’m not surprised only 18% have voted so far. Is it my imagination or are the Auckland candidates pretty much all advocating the same policies, apart from Penny Bright?

    Yep the Mayoral candidates have different genders and ages and linked to different lobby groups, but from what I can see zero fresh ideas and a lot of naive and problematic solutions especially to Auckland’s transport and housing and sucking up to the Natz and PPP’s.

  2. Takere 2
    3 October 2016 at 4:02 pm

    He should revisit the deal the Remmers/Remuera Golf Club got to subsidise each member of the club, $12k each & the “Public Park” (Golf Course) which the public cannot access. Screw up the contract & go after each member to reimburse the Council $12k for every year they have been subsidised, starting with the PM! The contract ends in 2091! Thats worth millions! Build some houses on it!

  3. Draco T Bastard 3
    3 October 2016 at 5:35 pm

    The story seems to be cast as Goff proposing a 15% tax on foreign buyers (the Vancouver model), when in fact he’d prefer foreign buyers only being able to invest in new housing (the Australian model), but at any rate he’s for action.

    My preferences in order are:

    1. Complete ban on foreign ownership of anything in NZ
    2. Complete ban on foreigners owning land or houses in NZ and a large tax on foreigners buying businesses
    3. A large, 15%+, tax on foreign buyers of anything in NZ
    4. A large, 15%+, tax on foreign buyers of houses or land in NZ

    Anything under that isn’t worth contemplating.

  4. Colonial Viper 4
    6 October 2016 at 8:34 am

    Ban foreign ownership of NZ land?

    So Goff is now willing to contravene the terms of the same Free Trade Agreements that he fought so hard for? Gimme a break.