Labour’s Comprehensive Housing Plan
Housing has become the major source of contact at my electorate office over the past two to three years, and it’s becoming more critical and urgent.
My staff and I have met with people living in cars, in garages, in boarding houses, and in cold damp houses, all of them desperate to be living somewhere safe, healthy and suitable, for the sake of their own health, and the health of their children and elderly parents.
The National Government has meanwhile sold 2,500 state houses and plans to sell more. The longer they remain in power, the less there is to offer these desperate people.
Meanwhile, couples and families who have saved hard for a deposit on a home have been dismayed to find the average house price in Auckland lift to $940,000 – a whopping nine times the average household income. In May, the International Monetary Fund credited New Zealand with having the fastest growing gap between house prices and wages.
Because of this, we have an increasing numbers of families stuck in rentals or mortgaged up to their eyeballs, young couples struggling and failing to save a deposit, Generation Rent, and parents worrying about their kids never being able to own their own home.
That’s why Labour last week announced a major new comprehensive housing plan.
It’s bold: Our KiwiBuild programme will build 100,000 affordable homes across New Zealand within 10 years, with 50% of them in Auckland. They’ll be warm, dry, modern, quality homes – and they’ll be affordable, with standalone houses in Auckland costing $500-$600: well below current market value.
At the same time, we’ll crack down on speculators, banning non-resident foreign buyers from buying existing New Zealand homes. This will remove from the market people who have no intention of living here from pushing prices out of reach for first home buyers.
We’ll tax property speculators who on-sell houses within five years of buying them. This will target those who buy houses with the sole aim of making a quick capital gain.
And for those who will never be able to afford a house – many of whom are currently homeless - we’ll end state house sales, remove the imperative for Housing New Zealand to deliver a dividend, and we’ll increase the number of state houses available for those who need them.
New Zealand is not a place where people should have to live out on the streets or in their cars. There are enough resources here for everyone to have a safe place to stay.
Finally, we’ll require all rental homes to be warm, dry and healthy, meeting proper standards in insulation, heating, ventilation, draught-stopping and drainage. This will ensure people who live in them don’t get sick. All our children deserve to be warm and dry in their homes.
Placed together, these policies – and more – comprise Labour’s plan for solving the housing crisis.
When middle New Zealand finds itself kissing goodbye to the Kiwi dream of home ownership, something is dreadfully wrong. We have a strong plan to address it. The Government can’t ignore it any longer.
Housing has become the major source of contact at my electorate office over the past two to three years, and it’s becoming more critical and urgent.
My staff and I have met with people living in cars, in garages, in boarding houses, and in cold damp houses, all of them desperate to be living...
Housing has become the major source of contact at my electorate office over the past two to three years, and it’s becoming more critical and urgent.
My staff and I have met with people living in cars, in garages, in boarding houses, and in cold damp houses, all of them desperate to be living somewhere safe, healthy and suitable, for the sake of their own health, and the health of their children and elderly parents.
The National Government has meanwhile sold 2,500 state houses and plans to sell more. The longer they remain in power, the less there is to offer these desperate people.
Meanwhile, couples and families who have saved hard for a deposit on a home have been dismayed to find the average house price in Auckland lift to $940,000 – a whopping nine times the average household income. In May, the International Monetary Fund credited New Zealand with having the fastest growing gap between house prices and wages.
Because of this, we have an increasing numbers of families stuck in rentals or mortgaged up to their eyeballs, young couples struggling and failing to save a deposit, Generation Rent, and parents worrying about their kids never being able to own their own home.
That’s why Labour last week announced a major new comprehensive housing plan.
It’s bold: Our KiwiBuild programme will build 100,000 affordable homes across New Zealand within 10 years, with 50% of them in Auckland. They’ll be warm, dry, modern, quality homes – and they’ll be affordable, with standalone houses in Auckland costing $500-$600: well below current market value.
At the same time, we’ll crack down on speculators, banning non-resident foreign buyers from buying existing New Zealand homes. This will remove from the market people who have no intention of living here from pushing prices out of reach for first home buyers.
We’ll tax property speculators who on-sell houses within five years of buying them. This will target those who buy houses with the sole aim of making a quick capital gain.
And for those who will never be able to afford a house – many of whom are currently homeless - we’ll end state house sales, remove the imperative for Housing New Zealand to deliver a dividend, and we’ll increase the number of state houses available for those who need them.
New Zealand is not a place where people should have to live out on the streets or in their cars. There are enough resources here for everyone to have a safe place to stay.
Finally, we’ll require all rental homes to be warm, dry and healthy, meeting proper standards in insulation, heating, ventilation, draught-stopping and drainage. This will ensure people who live in them don’t get sick. All our children deserve to be warm and dry in their homes.
Placed together, these policies – and more – comprise Labour’s plan for solving the housing crisis.
When middle New Zealand finds itself kissing goodbye to the Kiwi dream of home ownership, something is dreadfully wrong. We have a strong plan to address it. The Government can’t ignore it any longer.
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