The hidden homeless and the speculators
Speculators keep buying houses while families live in garages and cars. This is a moral failure, a leadership failure, a market failure – it is every kind of failure.
housing
Land tax – what’s the down side?
The Nats are using spurious data to justify dropping a proposal for a land tax on foreign buyers of housing. Why?
Hickey on Housing data
“Mr Hickey said the actual figure for foreigners buying homes here could be anywhere between 3 and 48 percent.”
Little’s Healthy Homes Bill passes first reading
Last night Andrew Little’s Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill passed it’s first reading. Bravo to Andrew Little, Labour, The Greens, NZF, The Maori Party, and Peter Dunne, who voted in support.
Little’s Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill up today
And this time it might get through.
We’re number one!
Garner – government “missing in action”
Duncan Garner reckons the government is “missing in action” on housing. Similar pieces could be written about poverty, pollution, the rising debt, carbon emissions, the use of NZ as a tax haven, etc.
If you need a good laugh this morning
“Nick Smith reckons Akld housing’s more affordable now than before National came to power”
Key’s land tax – too weak
Reaction to Key’s land tax has been luke warm at best, with strong calls for more effective action. Labour is promising “a ‘tidal wave’ of big housing reforms”…
Emmerson on the land tax
Housing crisis solved!
I don’t like to boast, but I have solved the housing crisis.
National gets a smacking on the housing crisis
Fair to say that Simon Bridges’ claim that there is no housing crisis has – not gone down well. National – you have a problem.
Housing crisis
Housing is very much in the news again. Short term profit and bugger the consequences!
Twyford on solutions to the housing crisis in Auckland
As Nick Smith flounders about uselessly, here are extracts from Phil Twyford’s speech on solutions to the housing crisis in Auckland.
Another Nick Smith fail in Auckland
How’s Nick Smith doing on the Budget plan to round up 500ha of Auckland land for housing? The answer won’t shock you!
Another housing policy screwup?
Bennet’s proposal to incentivise / coerce state housing applicants to leave Auckland for housing elsewhere seems to have hit a snag…
NZ first in the world!
Hikoi for Homes.
Saturday in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
Labour to defy TPP on property ownership?
If this report is accurate it opens an interesting can of worms!
Increase productivity. Make builders subject to criminal charges.
Nick Smith is being his usual dickhead self again suggesting that self-certifying electricians, directly subject to criminal prosecution, are the same as self-certifying builders who do not. The Government’s rules reduction taskforce is repeating the same mantras from the 1990s that lead directly to the destruction of productivity by National’s policies to create leaky buildings.
Tom Scott on housing
WMBAD: The Auckland Housing Bubble
The White Man Behind A Desk is back, with equal opportunity satire and a special message to rich people.
NRT: Facilitating tax cheats
I/S at No Right Turn on a reported rush in demand ahead of new rules for real estate transactions aimed at cracking down on tax cheats and speculators.
National doesn’t know what it’s doing on foreign buyers
National on a foreign buyers register: Smith says no, English says yes, Collins says maybe, Key says – bad Labour!
National’s leadership on home ownership
No need to worry about low levels of home ownership, National is here to lead. They understand the fundamental issues, and they have a plan…
China Crisis
Good on Labour for saying what needed to be said. Can they, the Greens and NZ First save the next generation of Kiwis from being tenants in our own land?
Includes Bonus Seinfeld reference!
Auckland property buyers
The big story this morning is Labour’s analysis of Auckland property purchase data.
A win on rental standards
This is a good example of a policy win from opposition. More please!
Dickensian
Step 1: Make welfare assistance almost impossible to obtain. Step 2: Dismiss the concerns of the poor by telling them they should ask for more help. Done!
If you thought the Auckland property bubble was bad now…
… then prepare for it to get a lot worse.
NRT: Disgraceful
I/S at No Right Turn: “Since coming to power in 2008, the National government has sold more than a thousand state houses and tightened access to the remainder considerably. The net result? People not getting the assistance they need…”
National to extinguish private property rights!
Shocking news I think you’ll agree.
The death of trickle down economics and the mess we’re in
Trickle down economics is pronounced dead by the IMF. Housing, the working poor and the economy – the policy settings are wrong everywhere.
Culprit for Nats’ housing fiasco located
You’ll never guess!
Ghost houses and the invisible hand
Auckland has an urgent deficit of 20,000 to 30,000 houses. Meanwhile 22,000 houses are sitting empty. Behold the efficiency of the market!
Affordable – in your dreams
Even under the best assumptions National’s “affordable” houses in Auckland are not actually affordable for the average paid worker. Nick Smith is dreaming.