We designed a quiz to test whether you can tell the difference between the Prime Minister of nine years ago and the Labour leader of today. It’s improbably difficult. It’s the End Times in the Auckland housing market. An average house is worth 10 times the average household income. Only four percent of sales are “affordable”. A … Read more
There’s a block of houses in Hamilton that exists as some kind of sad metaphor. It sits in the middle of tidy suburban streets and it lines a small part of the new motorway, so that thousands of cars pass by it on their way to work and on their way home. It’s as close … Read more
There’s a serious housing crisis in Auckland, and New Zealand’s rental market is a disgrace. But house hunting in London is a special kind of hell, says ex-pat New Zealander Lucy Gable. A while back, like thousands of ruddy-cheeked, sparkly-eyed Kiwis before me, I left the sunny, if avocado-free, shores of Auckland for the drab weather, poor customer … Read more
Charity may start at home, but it shouldn’t stop there, writes Amnesty International’s Grant Bayldon I spent a recent chilly Thursday night sleeping in the car with my son at Mangere Town Centre. It was the Park Up For Homes event, raising awareness of local homelessness. I can’t pretend it was a great hardship for … Read more
Economist Shamubeel Eaqub, Auckland mayoral candidate Vic Crone, Alan Johnson of the Salvation Army Policy Unit, and Leonie Freeman from Goodman Property Trust discuss the crisis of homelessness and affordable house prices with Guyon Espiner. The latest Ika Table Talk, titled “Can’t We Fix This Housing Thing?” sold out within hours of being announced. On Tuesday … Read more
This morning, John Key conceded some of his loudest and most persistent critics are right – about one thing at least. Tim Murphy was there to watch the Prime Minister change tack. John Key this morning conceded the government is not spending enough on the nation’s most vulnerable. In the midst of a political winter dominated by homelessness … Read more
Yes, it is a crisis: a profound and persistent crisis, bedevilled by distractions. Economist Eric Crampton takes a deep breath and works his way through the factors. The word crisis gets thrown around a lot. New Zealand has managed to have several crises in alcohol use over the past decade, despite official statistics showing generally … Read more
The prime minister told reporters yesterday there are plenty of (relatively) affordable Auckland homes on TradeMe. Madeleine Chapman searched the site to see if he was right. Asked yesterday about Auckland’s average house price nearing the $1 million mark, John Key was as upbeat as ever: “If you go on Trade Me this afternoon and … Read more
Nick Smith was totally right to crack down on a politician who pandered to his rich, elderly voting base at the expense of sensible housing policy. Now, about National pandering to its rich, elderly voting base at the expense of sensible housing policy. Nick Smith, a sentient turnip acting undercover as New Zealand’s Housing Minister, launched … Read more
The Spinoff Editorial Board rules on whether Nick Smith was right when he said housing is more affordable in Auckland now than when National came to power. This morning, Housing Minister Nick Smith made the following statement on Morning Report: “If you look at the Massey University Housing Affordability Index, independently produced by that university, … Read more
Is my broker the asshole? His advice seemed utterly outrageous, but at the same time completely rational, writes Jesse Mulligan. I had journalist Matt Nippert on my RNZ show this week. He’d done some calculations based on house price inflation and Lotto first-division inflation and worked out that by the year 2039, if you correctly … Read more
A Herald report says young people could buy houses in Auckland if they stopped spending on BMWs and trips to Bali. The Spinoff is stepping in to help these mythical big-spending Millennials. Over the last few years, several people have argued that Auckland has a problem with “‘housing unaffordability”. But today, the Herald printed a report … Read more