Housing

“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else.”

The Government’s new infrastructure programme is a huge step towards housing affordability. But much more needs to be done.

We should not regard the homeownership rate as the most important measure of a functioning housing market. Just because the ownership rate is falling does not tell us much on its own. Neither is a high ownership rate necessarily a positive.

Each year, the global affordability problem is getting worse. This year was no exception. Demographia’s 2017 report is the most depressing read so far.

The reason why Germany got more built is because there was greater political will to do so. And there are better incentives for towns and cities to deliver the housing that their citizens need.

A legacy of housing affordability would be a historic achievement and it would transform the lives of millions of New Zealanders. Good luck, Mr Prime Minister.

Unaffordable housing does not have to be the price we have to pay for living in a globally connected city. And telling people on average incomes to just put up with it is the modern equivalent of Marie Antoinette’s ‘Let them eat cake’.

New Zealand’s dysfunctional housing market should not dictate migration policy.