“And when I saw that article in the NZ Herald this morning , in light of whats been happening to so many New Zealander family’s having to sleep in cars and the like over the past few years – I thought ”FUCK IT !!”… Im going to say something.”
A recent UN report highlights the waste of treating homes as commodities. It should sound awfully familiar in the NZ context.
In every case a failure to plan, a failure to deliver, and a glib attempt to fob off the victims of his government’s failure.
Two very contrasting opinion pieces on racism, housing, jobs, and the immigration debate.
I’m used to hearing some pretty pathetic excuses out of the National government. But this will really take some beating.
This is what you get with a hasty, reactive, “top down” policy process.
We should probably just schedule this as a monthly post.
In the middle of a housing crisis “Housing New Zealand documents obtained under the Official Information Act show that there are nearly 2,500 empty state houses, more than 500 of which have been empty for over a year.”
English is a less convincing liar than Key.
“The absence of any meaningful progress in reducing child poverty rates over the past decade—and the lack of interest by Government in using welfare and income support programmes to do so—points to wilful indifference toward the long-term personal and social impacts of this avoidable harm.”
Any increase in the minimum wage is better than nothing, but National’s increases have not kept pace with the real cost increases (notably housing) faced by low income earners. That is why we are seeing the rise of the working poor, and increases in homelessness and poverty.
All this housing malarkey…are we over it yet?
Rudman: “The Prime Minister, in his role in charge of Housing New Zealand, and Smith have spectacularly failed to solve Auckland’s housing crisis over several years.”
Could be that the Auckland property market is turning downwards.
Warnings from the government and the Reserve Bank that first home buyers are taking on too much debt. Prices are too high, wages are too low, interest rates are rising. These warnings are effectively telling the average first home buyer to give up.
Andrew Little was on RNZ this morning talking housing affordability. “The amount people are having to borrow for their first home has increased 43 percent in the last two years.”
As the average Auckland house price hits $1 Million, the Special Housing Areas fail, and Real Estate agents openly promote land banking, what does National do? Why, they give up, of course.
Great news everyone! On The Nation this morning Nick Smith committed to raising average NZ wage to $250,000!
The Spinoff: “Lose the top of your party vote in Auckland, with Labour making ground, and the picture for the general election in 2017 looks like, walks like and quacks like a crisis.”
Most of the media has reported the Government’s “3%” spin on the extent of residential property purchases in NZ going to foreign buyers pretty uncritically. There have been honourable exceptions, and yesterday property editor Anne Gibson in The Herald joined them.
Spinoff: “The Spinoff/SSI survey reveals the extraordinary impact of housing crisis on residents of New Zealand’s biggest city – and the extent to which Aucklanders blame foreign speculation.”
Andrew Little: “John Key will give you all the excuses you can stomach for his failure to stabilise house prices and boost incomes but the truth is clear: if we want to change the path we’re on, we need to change the government.”
Tents and warehouses have been considered as emergency housing. Working people sleeping in cars are looking for driveways to rent. Say – has anyone seen John Key lately?
To the complete surprise of no one, private sector developers have largely waited out the “affordable houses” requirement in the special housing areas. Another National failure.
Until we sort out our housing and unemployment problems it is surely time to reign in NZ’s currently record levels of immigration.
More good news for the political left in the fine print of yesterday’s Newshub-Reid Research poll.
From Newshub:
No, not our government. Though as the average NZ house price just hit $600,000, and Auckland just short of $1m, they really should.
When the Auckland housing bubble bursts a lot of people are going to lose a lot of money. They won’t be able to say they weren’t warned.
Real Estate agent Ray White has formed a partnership with China’s Lianjia to market NZ houses to about 260 million Chinese buyers. They say it’s the government’s problem – and they’re right.
What are the Nats doing removing a proposed requirement for affordable housing – exactly the housing that Auckland desperately needs!?
“I want to be very clear that we are talking about a responsible, carefully managed reduction in house prices over a period of time like 10 to 15 years.”
Metiria Turei
Not often you’ll catch Metiria Turei and Don Brash in agreement!
The plan to have the private sector build social housing appears to be a flop. We need a large, well resourced organisation to take on the task of building these desperately needed houses. Wherever will we find one?
The unaffordability of Auckland housing is now seriously impacting even moderately well paid professions. As these trends continue, how is Auckland going to cope without without workers?
