National is welcoming the Finance Minister’s realisation that he needs to take action to address the housing shortage, but is worried about how long it took him to have this revelation, National’s Shadow Treasurer Andrew Bayly says.

“Directing the Reserve Bank to factor the impact on housing into monetary and financial policy decisions is the right move. The issue is how long it took the Government to realise this.

“The Opposition proposed such a move back in November. The Finance Minister should have acted then, but instead he let the red-hot property market continue to burn.

“Grant Robertson wasted precious time obfuscating, ducking and diving when he should have been acting. House prices have increased by more than 40 per cent under Labour.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t take another year for the Finance Minister to introduce fiscal measures that the Reserve Bank has been advocating for to curb runaway house inflation.

“The Government’s focus should also be on actually spending money on infrastructure that enables more houses to be built, rather than just talking about it.

“Every month that passes by without action pushes the dream of home ownership even further beyond the reach of first-home buyers.”

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