The state housing sell-off

Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, May 8th, 2015 - 7 comments
Categories: business, class war, housing, national, Privatisation - Tags:

The Nats’ plan to sell off state houses is moving forward quickly:

First regions chosen in social housing shake-up

The Government says it is using Tauranga and Invercargill as a test case for the transition of state houses to community housing providers (CHP). … The two regions have been chosen as the first areas as part of the Government’s plan to hand over between 1000 and 2000 Housing New Zealand (HNZ) homes to registered CHPs over the next year.

As per the title of this piece, National are spinning this as a plan for “social housing”:

Ms Bennett says providers in other regions have also expressed interest. “This is a great opportunity for these areas to deliver services locally. We know that vulnerable New Zealanders do better when services are delivered by local people for local people.”

What a load of rapidly spinning bollocks. As the Greens point out:

Govt won’t rule out state-house sales to foreign buyers

Bill English’s refusal in Parliament today to rule out selling state houses to non-resident foreign individuals or companies, or put a restriction on those groups selling them on for non social-housing use, demonstrates that the Government’s “social housing reform” is just a state-house sell off.
…
“We have to ask ourselves why these non-resident off-shore investors would possibly want to be social housing landlords in New Zealand.

“Is it because they genuinely care about providing a good service to vulnerable, needy Kiwis or is it because they’re snapping them up with the intention of waiting for the properties to appreciate in value, before selling them on as soon as they can?

“National’s state-house sell-off isn’t about providing a better or more efficient service, or any of the other lines they’ve spouted so far – it’s about money, pure and simple.
…
“The Government’s state-house sell-off is a disaster for vulnerable New Zealanders and it’s time the Government called it what it really is ­– a land grab,” said Mrs Turei.

If National were serious about their “social housing” spin they would place restrictions on the use and resale of these houses. Without such protections it’s just another privatisation of public assets.

7 comments on “The state housing sell-off ”

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  1. millsy 1
    8 May 2015 at 7:29 am

    You know, its too bad the left cannot get off their asses and gain control of the various community trusts that control millions of dollars of cash, and buy the for sale state housing.

  2. Sanctuary 2
    8 May 2015 at 7:33 am

    “…“We have to ask ourselves why these non-resident off-shore investors would possibly want to be social housing landlords in New Zealand….”

    The Anglo-Irish absentee Landlords who lived the high life in London on the backs of their hovel dwelling tenants (who starved more often than not) spring to mind.

  3. joe90 3
    8 May 2015 at 8:57 am

    “We have to ask ourselves why these non-resident off-shore investors would possibly want to be social housing landlords in New Zealand.

    Nah, we know why.

    Within three years, private equity firms or developers backed by private equity money had scarfed up 90,000 rent-regulated apartments, a full 10 percent of the total stock, according to the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development.

    http://www.thenation.com/article/179233/why-wall-street-firms-make-terrible-landlords

    The failing housing market has provided private equity firms like Goldman Sachs and Blackstone an opportunity to raise rents after purchasing homes at low cost. Since 2007, there have been more than 550,000 home foreclosures, forcing thousands of families onto the street or to squat in empty housing.

    http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/201502181411-0024566

  4. tc 4
    8 May 2015 at 9:18 am

    Gotta reward the backers with tax free property gains and who better to front it than pullya benefit.

    SCF was a one off dash for cash for shonkys banksta mates whereas this ones been on the back burner awhile now.

  5. seeker 5
    8 May 2015 at 2:20 pm

    And with all key’s global disciples in the IDU U they will only be too happy to do his bidding to become global landlords if he so desires. Don’t forget key too has an extra tool to get what he wants……….. hair yanking……and he doesn’t mind whether it’s male or female hair.

    IDU… International Democratic Union

  6. Draco T Bastard 6
    8 May 2015 at 2:25 pm

    National’s state-house sell-off isn’t about providing a better or more efficient service, or any of the other lines they’ve spouted so far – it’s about money, pure and simple.

    The only thing keeping the economy going at the moment is the housing bubble as it continues to massively increase the amount of money in circulation in NZ. And even then the money isn’t spread around enough to do much which is why we’re seeing such low inflation rates.

    IMO, the NZ economy would be in a deflationary spiral without the housing bubble and National knows it and, as they have no ideas as to what to do to rebalance the economy, they have to keep the housing bubble going. NZ’s economy is probably as bad as, if not worse, than Greece’s was in when the GFC hit and we’re on course for our own financial meltdown in the not too distant future.