NZ houses among least affordable

[MisterD]

A survey author blamed tight land supply for New Zealand's housing squeeze, saying excessive land use regulation had strangled subdivision expansion and artificially pushed up prices.

I blame Kiwis' obsession with property investment for artifically increasing the demand half of the equation, what's going to happen when all the baby-boomers try to realise that investment at the same time?

Don't say I didn't warn you. Diversify people.

[Ixion]

,,,
The government faces the challenge of stopping the rapid growth in land values without causing the whole house of cards to fall down.

The answer is tricky for a socialist government. A capitalist government would simplify the resource management act, over a period of 5-10 years, giving the market time to adjust. It would also impose capital gains tax on non-residential property (ie property you own but dont live in.)

Labour can't do this - a) as the resource management act is their baby, so they wont abort it, and b) as dearly as they would like to impose a capital gains tax, it would reduce the number of investors in rental housing, forcing up rents.

,,

Years ago, when we HAD a Socialist government , this problem was well sorted. We did indeed have a capital gains tax, and we had something called the State Advances Corporation, that financed people into their first home.At nominal interest rates. We also had inflation proofed savings bonds, so that the value of your deposit wasn't eroded while you were saving it, tax deductions for interest on home loan accounts ,and a lot of other good ideas, that in total meant that NZ had the highest home ownership ratio in the world. And no homeless people, and noone living in garages.

Then a right wing capitalist ideologue called Roger Douglas destroyed the whole apparatus in the name of "the market" , and the only people who benefited were the speculators and banks.

My answer is simple and effective. Nationalise the banks, impose a strict capital gains tax and death duties, and return State housing to its original purpose. All can be done within a few weeks, all it needs is political will (or a brick wall and a few bullets)

EDIT: And as Mr Finn observes, back then we had Building Codes , and council inspectors who were proper tradesmen and knew what they were doing. So the houses were good solid ones that have invariably lasted half a century alread, not the present leaky, jerry built ramshackle dog kennels we have today. Of course we didn't have property speculators making millions of dollars erecting the dog kennels, either.

[McJim]

Yep - Auckland housing market stung me for a while.

Raising 2 kids and keeping a wife and a home with only one income - no holidays, no luxuries & very little food (all funds available ploughed into mortgage and bills)...quickly wished I was back in the UK for a decent quality of life.

It's not nice coming to a country where it's expected and enforced that you will have no disposable income.

[SPman]

I favour the brick wall and bullets, scenario....

especially for the fuckwits who destroyed the building industry training schemes and turned the whole building industry over to "big business", back in the early 90's !!!

PS Ixion - a lot of the inspectors are proper tradesmen and a lot (well - about 2/3rds) do know what they are doing.
But, like a lot of officials, they are constrained by the regulations in place.

PPS - Its great fun telling a builder to pull down his walls and start again.

[davereid]

The main factor is the price of land.

Of course building costs go up to match inflation and a real or percieved shortage of tradesmen. And as we add compliance costs - extra buiilding requirements, extra insulation etc etc we make house costs go up too.

But you can still buy the materials for a standard gib and plaster home for abut $1000 per square metre.

Its the crazy cost of land that causes the pain - sections in outer suburbs reaching $200K.

Somewhere in government we seem to have forgotten that people live here too, not just native birds and the spirits of the deceased.

The resource management act could be tweaked, to recognise this, and make subdivision an automatically approved process.

In lots of the USA this is how its done, and median house prices in those areas seldom pass 3x median wage. And they get pretty good houses for the $$ spent too.

[Finn]

PPS - Its great fun telling a builder to pull down his walls and start again.

Wish they did it more often. Unfortunately the Council overlooked my place so it'll end up costing the rate payers. Thank you.

[mstriumph]

Yep - Auckland housing market stung me for a while.

Raising 2 kids and keeping a wife and a home with only one income - no holidays, no luxuries & very little food (all funds available ploughed into mortgage and bills)...quickly wished I was back in the UK for a decent quality of life.

It's not nice coming to a country where it's expected and enforced that you will have no disposable income.

..... have you thought about selling one of the children ?

[Brian d marge]

Years ago, when we HAD a Socialist government , this problem was well sorted.

Then a right wing capitalist ideologue called Roger Douglas destroyed the whole apparatus in the name of "the market" , and the only people who benefited were the speculators and banks.

My answer is simple and effective. Nationalise the banks, impose a strict capital gains tax and death duties, and return State housing to its original purpose. All can be done within a few weeks, all it needs is political will (or a brick wall and a few bullets)
.

Acc as well it was said to me that we could return to a no fault acc, with a simple 1 cent increase in tax .

but why nationalise banks ..Kiwibank is working well??? National bank westpac or what ever are screwing everyone for profit .agreed

But there are sometimes when the business model does work, unfortuantly when greedy man steps in the business model goes out the window.

I would like to buy a home, with a garage , but we are renting near Tokyo and my wife works part time 3 days a week. I work part time in the evenings and am starting my own business ( read a cheap excuse to spend money on bikes) and we have a 3 year old son,

Now we are at/below the average for income BUT we can afford the playthings in life ,,and life isnt stressful, its 10.30 and I am online to kiwi bike with the first cup of coffee for the day , then will clean workshop till 4

So while we WOULD like to move Unless the money is there ( i reckon about 600 a week ???~ ) then we are better off in a place that is definatly NOT called godzone . ( though we do have a cherry tree in the carpark across the road )

Nope that report was right , the unfortuant thing is NZ a producing country, not because you lot are a bunch of slackers , who are work shy bone idle and lazy !
No I think its just access to markets. There isnt any , ( WETA looks good , but then its strangled by telescum ..any others ??) and with other countrys getting good at farming .... I to would be diversifying

I mean there is a company who makes disposable plate from potatoes, here in japan we use and burn polystyrene one like they are going out of fashion. If the plates were atractivly priced ( quantity ) japan would take more than that company would produce ! ....

hey ho second cup off coffee ,,,

Stephen

[Ixion]

,,
but why nationalise banks ..Kiwibank is working well??? National bank westpac or what ever are screwing everyone for profit .agreed

,,

Kiwibank IS nationalised! Which is why it offers much better deals than the other rip off oligopolists. And the market ideologues said it couldn't be done. (Of course it is really just the old POSB reinvented, so it was obvious it COULD be done)

[Brian d marge]

Kiwibank IS nationalised! Which is why it offers much better deals than the other rip off oligopolists. And the market ideologues said it couldn't be done. (Of course it is really just the old POSB reinvented, so it was obvious it COULD be done)

ahhh that then the reason
I thought it was just Kiwi ownd

Stephen

[iwilde]

This is pretty scary considering I wanna buy a house and start a family in a few years time :S

-Indy

I feel sorry for genuine family minded people like yourself. To pay a 350-400thou morgage is about 500-600/week before insurance, rates, power, phone then the general everyday expences. So you and your partner buy a home, but now you need a dual income which means putting off having kids indef'. The only way you can do it is by looking for a property that can either be converted to a home/flat or building a minor dwelling and renting out the house that will return the most. I've herd of people going halves with friends only to have a falling out with later on and selling at a bargin price (one of my rentals was such a property and I had $120000 equity in it straight away!). Use your head and look ahead when buying a home as it still can be done, don't be afraid to add an exta $150000 to build an extra minor home as the rent will excede the $225/week in interest you'll be paying.
Good luck!

[The Stranger:Me]

I blame Kiwis' obsession with property investment for artifically increasing the demand half of the equation, what's going to happen when all the baby-boomers try to realise that investment at the same time?

Don't say I didn't warn you. Diversify people.

Hmm, surely the investors are only going to purchase if there is a demand to fill those houses.

If not, why would they buy? Very few (I doubt any) buy up houses and just sit on them vacant. So for each house there is an occupier (or thereabouts) so when they go to sell, surely they will simply sell to one of the occupiers. How would this create a glut and thus falling prices?

[Motu]

My daughter and her partner shifted into their new house less than 6 months ago....they have two adjoining sections and built on one,their mortgage is about $110,000 and managable on a single income,the new house was valued at $165,000 when it was built,the new garage was finished on thursday and now there is enough equity to start building on the other section...if they want to.Huntly is an hour from Auckland and half and hour from Hamilton....they consider they made a damn good choice to come down here,no way would they have their own home in Auckland.

[iwilde]

Hmm, surely the investors are only going to purchase if there is a demand to fill those houses.

If not, why would they buy? Very few (I doubt any) buy up houses and just sit on them vacant. So for each house there is an occupier (or thereabouts) so when they go to sell, surely they will simply sell to one of the occupiers. How would this create a glut and thus falling prices?

It can, and maybe will. When investors are greedy and buy sayu 10 house at near peak prices, everything is a very tight margin and it only takes one factor to upset the balance and cause an investor to sell quickly at a bargin price. Low influx of immigrants, interest rates have risen when their interest only morgages break, a couple of tenants kicking in the walls and taking off without paying the rent...etc...Can happen and if it does the major cause of it will be greed.

[iwilde]

My daughter and her partner shifted into their new house less than 6 months ago....they have two adjoining sections and built on one,their mortgage is about $110,000 and managable on a single income,the new house was valued at $165,000 when it was built,the new garage was finished on thursday and now there is enough equity to start building on the other section...if they want to.Huntly is an hour from Auckland and half and hour from Hamilton....they consider they made a damn good choice to come down here,no way would they have their own home in Auckland.

It can be done in Auckland, just have to be a bit more ballsy and buy very smart.