The Spinoff: Housing crisis costing Nats

14 comments on “The Spinoff: Housing crisis costing Nats ”

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1. Herodotus 1

   27 August 2016 at 10:10 am

   Just seen our minister Nick Smith on TV 3 saying that he expects in the future that housing will drop to single figure increases, how can this be a success when the reserve bank is to maintain a CPI increase in a 1-3% band?
   single figure increases in housing is still a failure given our wage growth and the RB’s policy target. I am sure that the Nats are hoping that time will solve this problem; time either they will not be in power at a time when this crap hits the fan or somehow without their intervention solves itself, as if
2. Siobhan 2

   27 August 2016 at 10:34 am

   Stop with the Housing Crisis.
   The only way we can be sure of saying “e noho rā” to National is if people wake up to everything the National Government have done, and the significant things they have not done, to make our country and society a place so much less than what it should be.

   Workers Rights, wages, free market and free market labour policy, Health care policy, Education, and the cornerstone issue world wide TAX POLICY both internal and external. Even some the old school style National voter business owners have serious doubts about Nationals neocon policies.

   The ‘fix’ to these issues is not building more houses, though that is a no brainer step in the right direction.
   What is required is a “Massive New Vision” of how we operate.
   Third Way Labour cannot deliver the change we need.
   They are part of the reason we are in this mess to start with.
   • Leftie 2.1

     27 August 2016 at 5:39 pm

     Disagree Siobhan, I think a Lab/Green coalition government can and will bring the change we need. Despite the nice little speech there that most would agree with, I get the impression you would rather the nats remain in power.
   • coffee connoisuer 2.2

     27 August 2016 at 8:05 pm

     Thats exactly it. a massive new vision is exactly whats required.
     These guys are in the business of what system we live life by and right now its only getting worse.
     It is the hours of a persons life and how they get to spend it that are important. and right now most will have to work until the day they drop dead
     We do need a new paradigm
     We need to shift from a system of profit that enables person to BUY his or her life to a system of delivery that enables a person to LIVE his or her life.
     What we have now is simply another form of slavery debt slaverty, economic slavey.
     Automation should be for the benefit of all mankind instead it is simply being diverted to the corporate bottom line and this when it has the ability to free us from having to simply work in order to survive.
     The reality is changing the paradigm would only affect a very small minority and they would benefit from the shift anyway like everyone with more time and more access
     We may also need a way to transition
     • Pat 2.2.1

       27 August 2016 at 8:11 pm

       “Automation should be for the benefit of all mankind instead it is simply being diverted to the corporate bottom line and this when it has the ability to free us from having to simply work in order to survive.”

       +1
3. AmaKiwi 3

   27 August 2016 at 10:49 am

   Follow the money.

   Why is National prepared to risk an election loss rather than deal with the housing problem? I can only guess but here are some of my speculations. Please do NOT argue about my list of things I would change. My point is not the worth of these changes but the huge moneyed interests that would be hurt by these types of changes.

   Follow the money.

   If I were the sovereign King of NZ (i.e., the PM), some of the things I would do are: ban foreign ownership of property and require divestiture, require Warrant of Fitness inspections for all rental properties, put a capital gains tax on property sales (perhaps excluding one family home), not allow tax deductions from losses on rental properties to apply against other taxable income, use public land (like golf courses) to build government owned “rent to buy” small houses and flats in the $150,000 to $200,000 price range, ban campaign contributions by anyone except NZ individual citizens (no companies, no trusts, no foreign donations allowed).

   Follow the money.

   How would changes like these impact National’s financial support base? Banks, developers, foreign speculators, landlords, real estate agents, etc.?
   • Leftie 3.1

     28 August 2016 at 12:04 am

     +1 AmaKiwi.
4. Keith 4

   27 August 2016 at 11:42 am

   A very illuminating example of how deceptive National is came about early last year in response to housing unaffordability and the damage foreign speculators were doing. Key fronted with much fanfare the set of initiatives that included amongst other things the limp 2 year “Brightline test”, the weak 20% minimum deposit and IRD numbers for foreign property buyers. Done properly this would have had an impact on property, but as it transpires, that was never it’s intent.

   In every case this new regime was a failure and anyone can see that in 2016, but most especially the IRD number system was designed to be a failure from the outset because what National and Key never told us was that any foreigner, who by way of being a student visa holder or work visa holder, could buy and sell properties without an IRD number. Worse is that property transfers could take place without an IRD number at all. And to this day they hide that in our notoriously unreliable official statistics.

   National did what National do, set up a system to profit the few, in this case selling off New Zealand property and then when the polls start telling them the public become increasingly unhappy and alienated by this system, tell us they are listening and promptly set up a facade claiming to address their concerns but with so many loopholes and outs that it will be tantamount to no change at all.

   This would have to be, by a massive margin, the most untrustworthy government in the history of this country.
   • Leftie 4.1

     28 August 2016 at 12:09 am

     +1 keith, agreed, and that’s it isn’t it? National pretending to do something when in reality National are doing nothing at all, but to maintain the status quo for it’s supporter base AmaKiwi outlined in his post.
5. AmaKiwi 5

   27 August 2016 at 12:11 pm

   @ Keith

   Keith, thanks for this example. All opposition parties need to keep a complete list of similar National b.s. “solutions.”

   “The devil is in the detail.”

   For the election National will roll out an extravagant list of housing proposals. Opposition parties will need to say, “You’re lying. What you actually would send to parliament will have holes big enough to drive an oil tanker through. It’s what you have always done.”
   • Leftie 5.1

     28 August 2016 at 12:09 am

     Yep.
6. Stuart Munro 6

   27 August 2016 at 12:36 pm

   It has to come down to punishment. A dishonest government must be punished well beyond the ballot box. I didn’t sign up to have my country wrecked by thieves.
   • AmaKiwi 6.1

     27 August 2016 at 2:04 pm

     Hi, Stuart.

     Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

     Power to the people . . . not the politicians of any of the parties.
7. Paul 7

   27 August 2016 at 3:08 pm

   Fran O’Sullivan questions the government’s inaction.

   Property prices – Canada acts, NZ waits

   Here’s an idea for the New Zealand Government: slap a foreign property buyers’ tax on all transactions they make in Auckland, to take the top off the housing market.

   That’s exactly what has happened in Canada, where a 15 per cent transfer tax has been applied to all residential property sales to foreign nationals in Vancouver. Google “Vancouver” and most high-rating news stories are now focused on the impact of this tax in cooling the red-hot real estate market.

   There’s plenty more besides, including outrage from some foreign investors over the provincial Government’s determination to look after its own.

   Like Auckland, Vancouver has been a magnet for offshore investors.

   And like Auckland, offshore demand combined with speculative pressure has resulted in home affordability now being impossible for ordinary Vancouverites.

   Predictably, there have been squeals from foreign buyers and realtors since the tax went into effect.

   But what is important is that the British Columbia provincial Government – with backing from Ottawa – has had the courage to put their own citizenry first.

   http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11700890

   We need a Trudeau, not a Key.

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