Labour says the Unitary Plan won’t provide affordable housing. Our mild-mannered economist Shamubeel Eaqub says that ignores the basics of supply and demand. People are getting worried the new Unitary Plan won’t provide enough affordable housing. Modelling done for the Independent Hearings Panel that authored the plan appears to show only 15% of the 247,000 new … Read more
Introducing The War For Auckland podcast, where we discuss the Unitary Plan, the local body elections, and other incredibly interesting topics. This week we are literally accompanied by the sounds of Auckland being constructed as the Spinoff’s senior pet correspondent Hayden Donnell and political editor Toby Manhire talk to former Housing New Zealand head of development Leonie Freeman and … Read more
Today we introduce a new series, ‘Shamubeel calls Bullshit’, in which prominent economist Shamubeel Eaqub swears at people who say moronic things about the Unitary Plan, the housing crisis, and the local body elections. Shamubeel Eaqub isn’t given to fits of rage. But even the most self-controlled economist can be driven mad by a bombardment of bad opinions, and the Unitary Plan debate … Read more
Strident remarks by Stephen Jennings, one of New Zealand’s wealthiest citizens, on housing, education and the economy suggest that the even the business community is tiring of the government’s endless softly-softly, writes Duncan Greive. Over the past few days we’ve seen a startling insertion into the public discourse of Stephen Jennings, a relatively low profile … Read more
Greg Pritchard is just another person watching nothing be done about the housing crisis. We’re told it’s too complicated and impossible to fix – but, as he points out below, it’s actually terrifyingly simple. Millions of words have been written about the housing situation in Auckland. TV networks have screened countless hours of renovation shows whose clear subtext … Read more
We edited John Key and Andrew Little’s words together into a surprisingly unified speech on the housing crisis. While I was putting together this impossible quiz, I noticed something surprising: John Key and Andrew Little were starting to make sense. Reading quotes by the pair on the housing crisis – Key’s from a speech in 2007, Little’s from interviews … Read more
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
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
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
Land tax is a good idea. But the proposal to lump it on non-residents alone just invites go-betweens to take advantage. Time for a properly coherent tax policy, argues Gareth Morgan. John Key has floated the idea of an annual land tax on foreign buyers of residential real estate as one response to the influx … 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
The Unitary Plan is a complicated beast of a document that has flummoxed many taking part in the debate. Simple misunderstandings are massively exacerbating Auckland’s housing crisis, says architect Henri Sayes. I’m an architect, I like buildings. And as an architect, I deal with planning regulation on a daily basis and know that the planning … Read more
A pantheon of New Zealand politics watchers were asked to cast their minds over 2015, select their champs and their flops, their ups and their downs, and the issue or story to look out for in 2016. Today, Part Four: The Big Issue for 2016. We asked our glittering academy to gaze into their crystal … Read more