“Jacinda Ardern continues to oversee the greatest transfer of wealth from rich to poor in New Zealand’s history”, says
ACT Deputy Leader and Housing spokesperson Brooke van Velden.
“The latest REINZ Monthly Property Report shows the median house price rose by 13.5 per cent from $780,000 in February 2021 to $885,000 in February 2022. Six
regions hit record median house prices.
“New Zealand risks becoming a neo-feudal society, with a property-owning class on one hand and house-nots on the other.
“Labour was elected to fix housing because National failed. Now Labour has failed as well. The real problem is not just
that young New Zealanders cannot afford homes, the whole Kiwi dream no longer works.
“Being a property-owning democracy was an essential part of the New Zealand story. People have come here for generations
so that they could become property owners.
“It’s ACT’s role to say when things aren't right, to have honest conversations. We told the Government that KiwiBuild,
the foreign buyer ban and removing interest deductibility wouldn’t work. We said in 2016 that National's bright-line
test would not work. We were right.
“ACT has put forward a package that would solve the underlying problem in housing: the shortage of urban land. We need
new ways to fund and build infrastructure, new coordination between central and local government, new rules for
consenting land, and new ways of accessing building materials.
“This is the scale of response necessary for the scale of the problem. New Zealanders have been let down by enough
gimmicks, like KiwiBuild that built 1,000 houses in three years. We need deep, structural reform that will transform the
supply of housing for all New Zealand.
“We’ve proposed a GST-sharing scheme, removing barriers to finance for build-to-rent schemes, and introducing a Public-Private
Partnership agency.
“Every Government says it’ll fix housing. None have, but this Government is the worst. Faced with one of the biggest
crises in a generation, the Government’s proposed changes to the RMA risk creating a regulatory nightmare rather than
being a silver bullet for development. The proposal focusses on central planning and its first priority is to honour the
Treaty. That won’t get things built.
“The Government should be asking ‘how do we create an environment for investment and development?’ Instead, this
Government has targeted Mum and Dad landlords and investors with new housing taxes. By failing to ask the right
question, it has failed to deliver on the very thing New Zealand needs it to – real change so New Zealanders can build
more homes.
“The fact is we’re simply not building enough. ACT is the only party that offers real solutions to the housing crisis.”