Nats’ economic genius at work in the property market
On Monday Bill English reckoned that pressures in the property market were “easing”. Yesterday’s headline “Spring house price surge in October”…
Social issues
housing
Social housing providers
Is Key planning to flog off state houses at half price to a liquor company?
Fifty year mortgages
Fifty year mortgages are here, and as usual the game is rigged against the ordinary buyer. Madness.
NRT: Wealth transfer
John Key’s latest answer to the housing crisis: bigger subsidies for private landlords! Subsidies to private landlords simply result in rent increases. It doesn’t increase the housing supply. But ole JK just likes screwing over young first home buyers..
Housing policy shambles
National’s sale of state housing assets and other aspects of housing policy is stupid at all levels. Which is probably why they are confused themselves about it.
Polity: Newsflash: Houses are assets
Prime Minister John Key, in his capacity as Prime Minister, promised no asset sales this term in the run up to the last election. But now they are selling assets – state houses.
The exciting sexy selloff of our State housing
Paula Bennett thinks that selling off much of the country’s housing stock is exciting and sexy and that the market and a group of charities will be able to resolve the country’s housing issues.
National losing the middle?
In its first term, National was very careful to be incremental – Key hung to the middle, chipping away carefully at workers’ rights […]
NRT: National’s failure on housing
A year ago National rammed through special housing areas promising 9000 homes consented in the first year under it. Over the last year they have managed to build 5 and consented 294. Nick Smith fails maths yet again. This year 13,000 – yeah right!
No point in state houses
There’s no point in state houses. Not according to the Nats anyway. Unbelievable.
The housing dream
The “Kiwi dream” is over – the housing crisis just gets worse and worse.
Cause of poverty and inequality found!
Good news citizens! The National government has revealed unto us today the cause of poverty and inequality.
NRT: A surprise policy
Remember National’s social housing policy? The one they campaigned on? The one that talked about how much money they were spending and was all about upgrading and investing in state houses? Somehow, post-election, its transmogrified into selling off a third of the state housing stock. John Key lying to voters as usual eh?
Boots Theory: Numbers are meaningless when families are living in cars
There’s something obscene about the way the economic story gets framed: the figures on a page, the points on an index, the number of dollars someone can swap for a number of different-coloured dollars, when people are suffering.
Unaffordable housing & the culture of greed
Rental housing remains unaffordable for many. The problem is the greed of investors & speculators, supported by a culture in which housing investment is seen as a way to individual prosperity.
Bizarre attack on Cunliffe
Andrea Vance has a weird attack piece on Cunliffe where she accuses him of not being hungry, not being able to offer instant affordable houses to everybody, not standing in the right place, and even sleeping.
Look over there! Tax cuts!
So National are both so out of ideas and so desperate to take the spotlight off their Dirty Politics that they’re now promising tax cuts. Tax cuts straight after we have a panel of our most prominent economists warning that the ‘rock star’ economy is going to hit the rocks.
Polity: Smoke and mirrors on housing
National’s own fine print takes us from “you can get up to $20,000!” to, at best, “11% of qualifying couples get up to $20,000.” Ouch…. Typical National. Long on glitz. Long on smoke. Long on mirrors. Short on actually helping people.
Labour’s housing plan is much better
National has announced its housing policy using Labour’s Kiwisaver scheme to provide extra money to first home buyers. But the policy will only add to housing inflation instead of addressing it.
Walking through the wrong door is the least of Gerry’s problems
Throughout the last few years Brownlee has consistently denied that there is a housing crisis, despite almost every sign pointing to one. What we need in Christchurch is more houses, now. Affordable, well-designed, well-insulated houses. Lots of them. This is why Labour’s Kiwibuild scheme will roll out 10,000 houses in Christchurch in the first 4 years.
Polity: MSD dumps on National’s “net tax” nonsense
Rob Salmond has been looking through the newly released Ministry of Social Development’s Household Incomes Report. It really is invaluable.
NRT: Fixing Christchurch
Labour has announced another part of its package to fix Christchurch: an immediate crash home-building plan. The market has failed, so the government has to step in. Its that simple. As for why the market has failed, there’s the ongoing insurance problems of course, but perhaps this also has something to do with it. Living costs in ChCh are exceeding wages and the construction industry is pocketing the difference. Labour is also changing the rules about exploiting overseas labour.
James Macbeth Dann, an introduction, and a bit about Rebuilding Christchurch
We allow new candidates for left parties to post here, usually just as guest posts because they aren’t bloggers (and unused to the medium). However James Dann from the blog Rebuilding Christchurch has been writing some excellent posts about that city and its travails during the rebuild. So we’ve decided to give him a author login because for years we have been longing for a author who is in and who writes about Christchurch.
Polity: News from National Comms!
Rob Salmond at Polity on what has landed in his mail box paid for by your GST and also close to the wrong side the permissible limits of Parliamentary Services funds. Or perhaps this is something for “NZ Taxpayers Union” to moan about wasting taxpayers money with. They won’t of course because they seem to be good little front organisation for Act and Jordan Williams appears to have about as much independence as their beloved slaves. But if you received one, then a complaint seems in order.
Kiwipolitico: The housing problem isn’t a housing problem; it’s a regional development problem
The national median house price is $415,000, a figure skewed substantially upwards by the extraordinary cost of housing in Auckland. But you can buy a three bedroom house a for a lot less outside the urban areas. There just aren’t jobs to go with them. The chart shows income and employment growth by region. The growth is just not there. Correct that, and it might correct the supply in the urban centres.
David Farrar is (still) the hypocrite
It appears that David Farrar, paid rubber mouthpiece for the National party, is exercising his right to be a hypocrite again. Surely he remembers his attitudes back in 2012 when he was acting as their mouthpiece to discourage other economic migrants seeking a better life in NZ? And it looks like Key is parroting the message tested at Kiwiblog… How predictable.
Snapshot of a nation: inequality
Al Jazeera reports on damaging inequalities in Spain under “austerity”. High unemployment; 30% of children in poverty, political corruption, tax evasion & a focus on football. Suggested ways to decrease income & wealth inequalities in NZ. Update: TV3’s The Nation: inequality & Wilson & Pickett interview.
Occasionally Erudite: Please, Labour, stop trying to link everything to the housing crisis
Jono at Occasionally Erudite has this advice to offer the strategy team at Labour. Make sure pushing of theme(s) this election doesn’t get snagged into the irrelevant that doesn’t have much to do with it. For instance “…are people currently earning minimum wage really likely to be even close to getting into the Auckland, Christchurch or Wellington housing markets?”
Polity: The young ones
Rob Salmond at Polity looks at what our young have to look forward to in 2019 with National’s hands-off housing screwup. How an average family would fare under National’s do-nothing approach to the housing crisis then?
Polity: Madness: Our house
How an average family would fare under National’s do-nothing approach to the housing crisis? Not very well. Even at the Treasury forecasts in the budget (which seem highly optimistic), this median New Zealand family, is projected by Treasury to have their disposable income go backwards over the next five “rock star” years. That is a disgrace
National don’t know and don’t want to know about foreign ownership of housing
National’s pandering to foreign money is disturbing their supporters
Marama Davidson: candidate for Tāmaki Makaurau
Marama Davidson, is on the Green Party list & is a candidate for the Tāmaki Makaurau seat. Davidson is a really promising up-coming politician. She is committed to working for people, communities, the environment, democratic process, & strongly supports wahine, Māori & young people.
Polity: House of Cards
Rob Salmond from Polity on how Budget 2014 figures show that the housing crisis will get much, much worse under National’s do-nothing approach.
Polity: Budget 2014: Over-promise. Under-deliver.
Earlier this week I predicted the Budget would be Labour-lite. I was right, but only in part. By far the biggest disappointment is in housing. The government signalled help for home buyers would be a highlight in the Budget. A few pathetic morsels isn’t a highlight. This will make next to no difference to the housing affordability crisis. First home buyers aren’t $3,500 short of a house. They are hundreds of thousands short, because there aren’t nearly enough homes.
The selective empathy of Key’s callous government
John Key’s government is cutting back on state housing, uprooting families from their homes. Large numbers of state houses are empty, while many are left to move from caravan park to sleeping in cars or outdoors. Weasel words from Paula Bennett and Nick Smith.
The neoliberal power game: cities for sale
An NZ Herald article about Mai Chen’s book on Auckland Council, supports big power, big money, big competition, and economic activities focused on anything but the production of material needs and wants. It ignores the struggling precariat living with housing, income, transport and energy poverty.