Media Statement
November 19, 2012
Labour Affordable Housing Scheme A ‘Patch-On Solution’
A New Economics Party Spokesperson Deirdre Kent said that although Labour had the right goal, their proposed method of
doing it doesn’t get to the bottom of the problem and is an artificial patch-on solution. “While land remains as an
asset class to speculate on, property prices will keep rising. It is private landowners and banks who reap the unearned
gains from rising land prices, and this widens the gap between rich and poor.”
“Land now comprises an average of 60% of the value of a property in Auckland,” she said. “These 100,000 affordable homes
will be bought cheaply and flicked over for a profit, so at least Labour should put a caveat on each title to prevent
that.”
“Only by addressing the rising land price problem at its roots can we wrench power from the overseas owned banks, which
took $3.5 billion in profits last year out of the country. Other solutions are artificial and only work for a while.
“Until we wake up and see that the property bubble in Auckland concentrates wealth with landowners and banks, we will
not make much progress in bridging the wealth gap,” she said. “Land should be treated as quite a different asset class
to buildings. We need a method to take land out of the market place,” she said.
She said Labour’s weak Capital Gains Tax won’t touch the affordable housing problem, because it leaves the family home
untouched and is set far too low anyway.
New Economics Party
ENDS