Property Investors Federation spokesman Andrew King has suggested landlords hold off installing a heat pump for tenants, saying a change in government could see the law reversed, and that some tenants don’t actually want new heat pumps. He has Hayden Donnell’s attention. New Zealand has long led the world in two shameful categories: Hobbit movies, … Read more
The region is known to lack many of the advantages of central and north Auckland suburbs, yet properties command rents as high as the likes of Mt Albert and Ōnehunga. So how do landlords get away with charging so much, Justin Latif asks. If you write the words “is South Auckland” into Google, the first … Read more
Economists warn that house prices are about to see a sharp correction. The NZIER public good team explains why this is happening, and how we can handle it. For the first time in recent history, New Zealand has been preoccupied by something that isn’t the housing market. With the entire country locked down for four … Read more
A new poem by Island Bay poet James Brown. Insulation My barber says that people no longer being able to afford houses is a no-brainer opportunity. He turns on the tele. Cue the leafy suburbs. Cue the dawn chorus. The tent of realty is specially crafted to respond to inequity. Its breathable fabric repels applicants … Read more
Wellingtonians claim that securing sought-after rental properties is becoming a battle royale. Are they over-reacting, or is the shortage of places to live real? Horror stories of even well paid young professionals going into battle to find themselves a home in Wellington’s cut-throat rental market keep hitting the headlines. It now costs an average $550 … Read more
Jo and Brendan Lindsay made millions out of plastic lunch boxes and now they are figuring out how to give back to the New Zealand that fostered their good fortune. If there is a downside to selling your company for $660 million it is that people think you’ve suddenly been transformed into an altruistic ATM. … Read more
Thirty per cent of the Swedish population live in public housing. New Zealand could learn a lot from their system, argues a former Auckland renter. After many years living in rented flats in Wellington and Auckland, I’ve found myself living in public housing in Gothenburg, Sweden. I’m writing home to tell the tale of a … Read more
In the second part of a new event series looking at the future of Auckland, The Spinoff and Auckland Council host In My Backyard: Glen Innes, to ask what the suburb can teach the rest of the city about housing. Hayden Donnell looks for inspiration and innovation on how to house the city’s future. Auckland Council’s Unitary … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Prefab housing factory opened amid huge need, worrying new measles developments, and public shows common sense on drug testing. A new factory has been opened to produce building materials, which if scaled up could have a significant impact on construction time and costs. Anne Gibson at … Read more
Grandparents Mere and Ngaro Pita spent decades in a run-down home. A West Auckland programme for elderly residents helped fix that. Mere and Ngaro Pita’s West Auckland home is literally a labour of love. The proud grandparents live about five minutes’ walk from Kelston Boys’ High School with their four mokopuna. Originally from the Far … Read more
Freedom camping, public transport and affordable housing are challenges Queenstown’s Mayor Jim Boult says he’s uniquely poised to solve – if only people would do what they’re told. The Spinoff local election coverage is entirely funded by The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click here. Queenstown is a … Read more
On the latest episode of The Good Citizen podcast, Anahera Rawiri talks to Jeremy Hansen about a uniquely Māori solution to Auckland’s housing crisis. The Good Citizen podcast: Download (right click to save), have a listen below, or subscribe to the series on iTunes. New Zealand’s housing crisis is a systemic failure on so many fronts: … Read more
What if you could grow a house from seed or 3D print a new subdivision in a week? The housing sector is ripe for disruption – could technology be the magic bullet we need? Jo Aitken sounds like she’s pitching an episode for the next season of Black Mirror. Her ideas about the future of … Read more
Louise Hutt is running for mayor of Hamilton. This week she found out her landlord is selling her home. My partner and I found out on Friday that the house we rent is going up for sale. We live in a one-year-old townhouse in Frankton – one suburb over from the CBD in Hamilton. You … Read more
Phil Twyford has avoided an official demotion in the Cabinet reshuffle, but the breakup of the housing portfolio reveals the desperate state of the KiwiBuild programme he oversaw, writes Toby Manhire In 2014, as John Key set the stage for his third term as prime minister, he announced a reshuffle of his National Party cabinet. … Read more
Don’t fall for the spin that presents this latest revision of a historical hostel building type as some kind of genuinely community-based housing, argues Mark Southcombe ‘Co’ is hip and cool. It’s fashionable as a prefix for all sorts of community-based and community-led, co-operative, collaborative and collective housing models. The prefix is also being co-opted … Read more
Our housing crisis is intimately linked to our prison overcrowding crisis, write Vanessa Cole and Ti Lamusse In May 2018, Charlotte was unexpectedly released from prison following a short period on remand. While in prison, Charlotte* lost her only source of income and the room she was renting. Her family were a major source of … Read more
In ditching the CGT, Jacinda Ardern has implicitly accepted that the primary structure of savings and investment in New Zealand will remain bound up in the family home. Accepting this reality may have been necessary to keep Kiwibuild on life support as house prices begin to fall. Avoiding solutions to the political question of wealth … Read more
Emily Writes was disappointed by yesterday’s capital gains tax news – but after years of government inaction on housing inequality, she wasn’t surprised. I found out that Jacinda Ardern had chucked plans to impose a capital gains tax through my group chat. Each day, my girlfriends and I chat throughout the day about various things … Read more
The government today announced a raft of measures aimed at making rental homes warmer, drier and healthier. If there’s one thing tenants enjoy more than totting up how much of their wages are going to fund an extension to their landlord’s Waiheke holiday home, it’s enumerating all the highly specific ways in which their own … Read more
Property owners learn their fate on Thursday with the Tax Working Group‘s big reveal on capital capital gains tax. But whatever happens, it won’t be the housing panacea Generation Rent is hoping for, warns TOP’s Geoff Simmons. Here’s a message for young people who don’t yet own a home. In the coming months you will … Read more
As government and business lag behind, the fledgling community-driven housing sector is pursuing alternatives to bypass an unjust system, writes Thomas Nash Is there any hope for the future of housing in New Zealand? Our tax law encourages wealthy landowners to enrich themselves through untaxed revenue (also known as capital gains). The government faces scrutiny … Read more
Sure, KiwiBuild has gotten off to a rocky start, but it’s far from a disaster, argues interest.co.nz’s David Hargreaves. In fact, with a few simple tweaks, it could even become a success. Some people can be pretty quick to call something a failure. In the eyes of some this government’s flagship KiwiBuild policy already appears … Read more
Today brings confirmation about the depth of the crisis in a global context. We need bold action, not tinkering at the edges. And overhauling the tax system has to be part of the change, write Geoff Simmons The Demographia Housing Affordability Report released today shows our country is losing at housing. We are the worst … Read more
A tale of a Wellington City Councillor, a plaque celebrating a famously compassionate Wellingtonian, and 32 people living in cars in the councillor’s ward. “Apparently there are now 32 people living in cars in the unrestricted parking area directly below X Road*” the flyer from Wellington City Councillor Nicola Young said. Shockingly, what followed next … Read more
Government fixation on gentrifying state housing neighbourhoods to provide sites for KiwiBuild developments seriously undermines the opportunity to meet the most pressing needs, writes Alan Johnson, the Child Poverty Action Group’s housing spokesperson. The recent media preoccupation with KiwiBuild as a middle class welfare programme risks overlooking a far more critical housing story. It is … Read more
Yesterday saw yet another story of young home owner success splashed across the news. But this time both sides of the political divide kicked off, sledging the government and the new mortgagees alike. Don Rowe explains. Monday morning dawned like many others. It was raining in Auckland. Denise L’Estrange-Corbet was being weird on the telly. Stuff … Read more
Today’s housing crisis is the fruit of successive governments failing to put the time, effort and funding into sustainable housing solutions, says Bernie Smith, a frontline social housing worker from the Māngere-based Monte Cecilia Housing Trust. This is an abridged and edited version of the Bruce Jesson lecture, delivered last week This government has spent 11 … Read more
The show Renters is a morality play about the sufferings inflicted on landlords by their terrible tenants. Hayden Donnell talks to one of the show’s stars ahead of its seventh season, and tries to convince her to support pro-tenant rental reform. It’s impossible to dislike Pru Morrell. The star of TVNZ’s reality series Renters is … Read more