Joe Trinder Mana news editor

Nick Smith is trying to resolve the housing crisis by taking advice from property developers and making drastic changes to the resource management Act .  This will make it easier for property developers to build more housing but doesn’t guarantee the housing will be affordable. The Minister neglected to consult first home buyers in fact these changes are more likely to benefit property speculators. To resolve the housing crisis it needs to be affordable and changes in the RMA won’t tackle the root cause property speculation.

Solutions to the housing crisis

*Legislate a capital gains tax

*Stop foreign property investment

*Establish first home buyers interest free loans

*Allow total access to Kiwisaver savings not partial access

*Build 10,000 state houses

*Limit how many property’s an investor can own

A family should not pay capital gains on the family home even if in trust, any extra investment property deserves capital gains tax because property speculators are doing the public a disservice by preventing new families from buying affordable property. Building  10,000 new state houses will give New Zealand families affordable housing and will ease the rental market.

New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world that permits foreign property investment from foreign citizens that have access to 1%  loans in a property market that is rising at 7.6%.  We are making foreigners wealthy at the expense of Kiwi families. Foreign investors should be directed to our stock exchange if they genuinely wanted to invest in the economy. This has absolutely nothing to do with xenophobia just common sense.

Establish interest free loans for first home buyers because the amount this generation have to pay for a mortgage deposit is the same amount for an entire property cost 25 years ago. Income has exceeded house prices where mortgages can’t be paid off in a life time.

At the moment a first home buyer can only access portions of their Kiwisaver to get on the property ladder what is the point of compulsory savings if you start your mortgage when you retire at 65.

Auckland has 473,451  dwellings too many are owned by property speculators that have large portfolios there needs to be limits, an investor doesn’t need 50 houses . Nick Smith is incapable of making the hard decisions he doesn’t have the courage to make to make housing affordable because it might jeopardize the $7 million that property developers donated to the National party campaign in the last elections.