David Farrar: Another Kiwibuild success!

The Herald reports:

A group of 109 never-lived-in new homes in Auckland and Wellington are for sale from the Crown, which was contracted to buy them from private developers, who failed to sell their stock in a tough market.

The housing schemes all have an underwrite via KiwiBuild because previous Governments backed new schemes to boost supply by agreeing to bail developers out if they couldn’t sell.

Point of Order: Covid research is funded and we get progress reports on housing-related policies (but don’t ask about the KiwiBuild target)

Health and housing are among the issues tackled on the Beehive website today.

Mind you, on the health front the government has focused some of its efforts on sexual and reproductive health in the Pacific, providing “new support” for access to contraceptives, family planning and other sexual and reproductive health services.

This (involving an investment of “a further NZ$30 million”) was announced by the Minister of Foreign Affairs during a visit to Port Moresby.

Bryce Edwards: Labour needs to rediscover its political soul

In the last few days the Labour Government has come in for criticism for its panicked pandering to opinion polls. Last week it announced petrol tax cuts and reduced public transport fares. This was in response to pressure from opponents and the public who alleged the Government was out of touch on the cost of living crisis, and following a poll showing Labour behind National.

Likewise, the Government has decided to fast-forward the dismantling of the Covid protections framework – expect to see Covid passes and mandates being phased out. This all has the appearance of Labour choosing pragmatism over principle.

TVNZ’s Jack Tame has been scathing, telling his Newstalk ZB audience on Saturday that the recent petrol tax cuts were a kneejerk reaction: “The truth is, petrol taxes would never have been cut if Labour had been well ahead in last week’s poll. They saw the poll numbers. They freaked out. They dropped almost $400m to try and win back some popularity.” Tame argued that there are more targeted ways to relieve the cost of living crisis.

Michael Bassett: Centralising everything

When Labour governments run out of ideas they have usually resorted to centralisation and more controls. In its final term, Peter Fraser’s ministry that had been one of the most creative in New Zealand’s history, centralised as tired ministers hoped their trusted bureaucrats would keep Labour’s faltering show on the road. The ministries of Walter Nash, Norman Kirk and Bill Rowling followed similar paths. Jacinda Ardern’s government, you’ll recall, had very little policy to start with. So little in fact that when it came to office in 2017 it had to set up more than two hundred committees and inquiries to tell it what to think and do. The results were pitiful. Almost no Kiwibuild houses were constructed, homeless numbers increased, poverty figures rose rather than declined, educational achievement standards kept slipping against other countries, and major infrastructure construction fell well behind schedule. Whenever criticised, rookie ministers blamed the previous government, and then Covid. Message? Centralising everything can’t compensate for the absence of carefully-thought-through policy.

Bryce Edwards: Political Roundup - Labour’s KiwiBuild reset disaster

The Government has been widely panned over its major announcement yesterday on housing. There are a few positive takes on the “reset”, but generally it has been viewed as an embarrassing backdown at best, or at worst a sell-out of those needing the housing crisis addressed. One political journalist has even branded yesterday’s announcement as “easily the worst day politically” for the Labour-led Government so far.

This criticism isn’t just politicking from conservatives or the right. The most severe criticism has come from progressives and the left. This isn’t really surprising because – as with Jacinda Ardern’s capitulation on the capital gains tax – the announcement suggests the Government has essentially given up on bringing transformational change to the housing crisis. Many of those who might be sympathetic or supportive of the Government are those most deeply disappointed with what Housing Minister Megan Woods is now doing with KiwiBuild.

NZCPR Weekly: Supreme Power for New Housing Authority

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we review the KiwiBuild debacle and outline how, instead of fixing the problems in the housing sector, the Government is creating a super agency with draconian new powers to not only sidestep council plans and the RMA, but to compulsorily acquire private land and impose new taxes; our NZCPR Guest Commentator Fiona Mackenzie shares her concerns about the role the tribal elite will play in the new agency; and our poll asks whether you believe this new Government agency should be given the power to compulsorily acquire private land for its developments.

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Bob Edlin: What's happened to NZ's housing crisis?

The absence of emotive media reports and silence from the lobbyists does not mean the housing “crisis” has been fixed. 

So what happened to New Zealand’s housing “crisis”? Was it real, or just another imagined but emotive issue akin to “peak oil”, the fetish of the Green Party back at the turn of the century which was accompanied by grim forebodings that the world would run out of oil by 2006?

Surely it was not just a figment of our – or the public’s – imagination! After all, the media for months carried nightly images of the hundreds of homeless on the streets, people living in garages or – if they were lucky – people being accommodated at state expense in motels.

That was in the run-up to the general election.

NZPR Weekly: Housing Affordability – Lottery or Reform

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

This week we examine KiwiBuild and outline why it will not solve New Zealand’s housing affordability ‘crisis’, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Frank Newman explains why Labour’s housing changes are making the situation worse, and our poll asks whether you think KiwiBuild is a good policy.

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*To register for the NZCPR Weekly mailing list, click HERE.  

Frank Newman: KiwiBuild bargains

The housing cost crisis affects virtually everyone. That is pretty much the conclusion one can draw from the KiwiBuild eligibility rules which were announced last week.

To be eligible for a KiwiBuild home, a buyer must:

• Be a first-home buyer or "second chancer" (being those who have previously owned a home but are through adverse circumstance are in a position similar to the first home buyer);
• Be a New Zealand citizen or resident;
• Intend to own and live in the home for at least three years;
• Have an income below $120,000 if a sole purchaser or $180,000 for a couple.