There is no housing problem!
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- Date published:
10:25 am, May 11th, 2017 - 19 comments
Categories: housing, national, spin, useless, you couldn't make this shit up -
Tags: brighter future, HAM, housing, housing affordability, housing crisis, list, nick smith
Better for first-home buyers now – Government
Nick Smith says figures for first home buyers nationally show housing is more affordable than when National became government.
Nick Smith has lost the plot (along with the portfolio).
The Government says first homes are more affordable, despite a new measure showing houses are out of reach for the majority of first-time buyers.
Four-fifths of potential first home buyers could not comfortably afford a house in New Zealand, according to an MBIE report.
The long-delayed housing Housing Affordability Measure (HAM) was finally released on Wednesday after almost two years of delay.
The new Housing Affordability Measure (HAM) is described here (Henry Cooke on Stuff):
New HAM measure is powerful but won’t stop the spin
Throughout the entire housing crisis, while median prices in Auckland have close to doubled in the last seven years, the Government has lacked an actual measure on what they consider “unaffordable”. This situation let John Key point to a grab bag of Trade Me listings when it was politically useful, and hamstrung journalists and others looking to get a rigorous picture of the problem.
Today that changed – kind of. The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) have finally released the Housing Affordability Measure (HAM), which Cabinet commissioned way back in 2012. It has a funny name and is very complicated but it does do one very important thing: it puts a specific number on unaffordability.
If you’re a single renter who has less than $690 of pre-tax income left each week after paying rent or a hypothetical mortgage payment in your area, you’re below the threshold, and your housing options are unaffordable.
The story that number tells is a bit more complicated than “everything’s screwed” but isn’t that far off. With that number in mind, as of mid-2015, four fifths of renters could not afford to buy even a cheap house near where they currently lived, and close to two thirds couldn’t comfortably afford to continue to rent. (MBIE estimates those renters make up about a third of the country.) As ever, things are the worst in Auckland, where 95 per cent of the renters in Manakau could not comfortably afford mortgage payments on a starter home in their area.
MBIE got this number by taking a look at the exact median amount left over for the entire country in mid-2013, and then adjusting for inflation and for household size.
So no, the picture is likely not quite as bleak as “four fifths of Kiwi renters will never be able to afford a home,” but it does show that there is a definitely a serious problem, and in Auckland that problem is getting even worse. …
Read the full piece for plenty more and pretty graphs.
In other news (Liam Dann in The Herald):
Young house hunters should just give up
Last week’s property statistics were horrible for anyone hoping to get on the property ladder in Auckland.
…
If you convert that 12.3 per cent rise into dollars (which, unfortunately, is what we have to pay for things with) the average value of a house in the Auckland region rose by $114,000 in the past 12 months.I’m not sure how many flat whites that is, but if I was young and contemplating the Auckland housing market I’d waste my money on something a bit stronger.
Normal people should probably just give up. If you are on any kind of regular wage then scrimping and saving to buy a house is futile.
…
Based on the case studies we’ve seen in the media in the past few weeks some young people are so desperate to own a home they are gearing every aspect of their life towards it. They are effectively learning to become property investors in order to get into the market. This is a terrible way to resolve the housing crisis. The last thing New Zealand needs is more property investors.To quote Dr Oliver Hartwich from economic think tank The New Zealand Initiative: “Booming property markets create a mirage of wealth, not wealth itself.” That’s not a lefty liberal, millennial view. That’s the view of most economic and financial market experts in this country.
…
The next Government, regardless of which party forms it, needs to confront housing inequality. Otherwise New Zealand will eventually have its own Brexit or Donald Trump-style backlash. …
Housing affordability plummets across New Zealand
Auckland housing affordability tumbles
Housing affordability ‘crisis point’
Auckland houses ‘severely unaffordable’
‘I see no way of ever being able to own my own home’
Loans for first homes jump 43% in 2 years
NZ ‘half a million houses’ short
Auckland needs to double number of new homes – data
And so on…
19 comments on “There is no housing problem! ”
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- Government’s move to monetise access to nature a slippery slope
The Green Party is voicing serious concerns over the Government’s proposal to charge for access to public conservation land, released today. ...1 week ago
- Green Party condemns the passage of Treaty Principles Bill
The Green Party condemns the passing of the Treaty Principles Bill at first reading, and is clear that the fight is not over. ...1 week ago
- Stand Up for Te Tiriti
Te Tiriti o Waitangi is our country’s founding document. It forms the basis of the relationship between Māori and the Crown – and the Aotearoa New Zealand we live in today. ...1 week ago
- Release: Over 15,000 sign Labour’s open letter to Luxon
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- Fast Track Bill threatens environment, climate and reputation
The fast-track legislation passing its second reading in Parliament is another step towards environmental ruin. ...2 weeks ago
- Greens join King’s Counsel in calling for Treaty Principles Bill to be abandoned
The Prime Minister must answer the call from a group of senior lawyers of the King’s Counsel to abandon the divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- Chris Hipkins’ apology statement to state and faith-based care survivors
...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour formally apologises to state and faith-based care survivors
Labour joins with the Government in unreservedly apologising for the abuse, neglect and trauma including torture in state and faith-based care and for ignoring the voices of survivors for too long. ...2 weeks ago
- Green Party stands in support of survivors of abuse in care
Today, the Green Party stands alongside the survivors of abuse in state care and faith-based care as the Government issues an historic apology. ...2 weeks ago
- Green Party calls for conscience vote on Treaty Principles Bill
The Green Party has written to the Speaker of the House requesting he enable a personal vote on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- Govt move to exclude journalist risks chilling effect
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- Without action, an apology will be empty air
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- Release: Concerns remain over tobacco interference
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- Urgent wake-up call on climate
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- Release: Poroporoaki: Ta Robert (Bom) Gillies
Kua hinga te manawa kairākau o Te Rua Tekau Ma Waru Tiwhatiwha te po! Kakarauru i te po! Ka rapuhia kei hea koe kua riro! Haere e te Ika a Whiro ki o tini hoa kua ngaro atu ki te Pō ...2 weeks ago
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- Release: Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori call on the Prime Minister to block the Treaty Principle...
The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- NZ must pursue independent foreign policy
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- Child Protection Investigation Unit established
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Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Ka mihi ki te mana whenua ko Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. Kia ora and good morning everyone. Thank you Fran and Simon for inviting me here today, and importantly your leadership of this forum over several years now. I want to acknowledge David Gehrenbeck, Deputy ...2 days ago
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- District Court Judge appointed
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- First arrests made under gang patch ban
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- Better support for victims of sexual violence
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- Government moving forward with Regional Deals
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- MSA pilot participant update
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- Improving the lives of young New Zealanders
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- New Zealand supporting loss and damage fund
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- Gang crackdown begins at stroke of midnight
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- LGFA increases borrowing capacity to support high growth councils
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- Temporary Traffic Management costs revealed
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- Jurisdiction of Disputes Tribunal to double
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- Protecting New Zealand from foreign interference
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- Final push needed to get to Smokefree 2025
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- Next steps for Regulatory Standards Bill
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- Minister to consider 7AA select committee report
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No housing?
No problem.
Sorted.
Failing all else on housing, the National Party are now solely reliant upon lies. Nothing new there but they getting far more blatant stupid lies at that.
Yes Nick, 10+ times the average wage to buy a home, the vast vast majority of first home buyers are now excluded from the market and the best this idiot and his lying party can come up with is ” housing is more affordable than when National became government”. How embarrassing and how fucking insulting is that!
They are out of ideas, they know the housing bubble is propping up the economy and they want to cling to power any way they can.
Time for a new government who, a, gives a shit and b, has a genuine plan to sort this mess out!
They have ideas but their ideas always make things worse for the nation in general although it will make a few rich people richer.
That’s now becoming excruciatingly obvious now and so they’re having to lie even more than usual.
Even worse than our government lying more is they have the police lying for them so its like a disease its spreading
Technically he is not lying as for Wealthy foreigners as well as well healed National party supporters who have received large tax breaks, had the tax burden moved off them to the less well off, got bargain basement shares in SOEs returning nice dividends and lots of new ways to funnel their money through tax havens it has become more affordable for them to afford a house in New Zealand than when National first came to power.
All those middle-class idiots who voted for National and those of us who would never vote for National are the only ones finding it impossible to buy a house.
Clearly Nick and his Nasty Party colleagues don’t give a fuck! It doesn’t matter how embarrassing the lie is. Insulting the ‘plebs’ is part of the Nasty Party DNA, they just can’t help themselves.
Nick must believe his own bullshit! How does the quote go? “How can you tell when a politician is lying? His lips are moving!”
A creative solution to lying politicians could be a requirement for them to be hooked up to a polygraph as a prerequisite to media interviews and public speeches. Not a bad test either! How difficult is it for a Nasty Party politician to tell the truth? Is it even possible?
I’d be interested to know if any of Nick’s trusts hold interests in residential property?
https://www.parliament.nz/media/3926/2017-summary-report-final.pdf
Just do what Bill does and gamble $293m at Sky City! No questions asked! Or asked but after private negotiations, 4 months community service. And lets face it, nobody would have cared if he had not got involved with Mega and FBI vendetta and just stuck with property and gambling and whatever else one does to be able to gamble $293 million at Sky City.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11835412
So the Paua poacher gets 4 years prison.
A WINZ women who ‘had a relationship with another WINZ person’ gets 1 year of prison for fraud and her kids put into CYFS.
8.5 years jail for businessman who wrote letters to Fonterra pretending he was going to put 1080 in milk powder.
Gosh, no wonder we have so many new resident and non resident property investers these days! Crime does pay if you are rich enough!
Shhhhhh…..
Bill would have been a goneburger had he not have had the support of …..?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10807435
This kind of shit really, really sticks.
Well Peter Thiel is apparently a Trump fan and he’s doing well in Nu Zillind too.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11794020
We just have too much tax payer money and assets (sarc), our government needs to redistribute NZ tax dollars to Skycity for extra gambling and right wing Billionaires.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11794020
They’ve just GOT to keep Smith on.
Yes they do but is even Labour or the Green willing to build enough state houses fast enough to ensure everyone is housed with a lifetime lease for the house that they’re in?
Rhetorical question draco. Both those parties are way too middle of the road for that.
Far out Nickoff, looking forward to our next encounter, you are a National Disgrace.
I would really like to know how many Tory voters actually support him and his ideas, that don’t live in Smiths electorate excluding English, Brownlee and co.
Given the number of scathing comments on that Stuff article, including from many self-declared National voters, not many. He seems to be almost universally regarded as a pathetic joke.
Could he be part of a government that simply makes things up?
More and more conservative people are noticing…
https://croakingcassandra.com/2017/05/02/
Cheers for the link, that was a good read SaveNZ
I see to recall when 1st home buyers could afford a house, and could slowly afford the 5% deposit…
Labour opened up the door though to overseas investors with the Free Trade Agreement. House prices were reasonable before then, when Kiwis sold mostly to Kiwis, homes to live in, not to make whopping fortunes out of, whilst locking out all new generations to come. Thanks Labour. National are no better, they blame the council for poor planning, rather than themselves, for doing nothing. A whole generation betrayed, locked out, not given the chance and right of owning a home, one of the best and most satisfying life achievements. Tragic really.
After all that dreadful publicity, Nick Smith is sure to be cheered by this bit of good news. Some buyers are finding it easier than ever before to purchase a home in New Zealand apparently…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11853725