Responding to National MP Nicola Willis’s statement that National was wrong to sell so much state housing, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says:
“What a weak capitulation to left-wing ideology.”
“Selling a state house doesn’t make it disappear from the market. In fact, when governments hold on to state housing
they make the housing crisis worse by slowing down development, limiting supply, and driving up prices in the private
market.”
“When National left office in 2017, almost 4000 state houses in Auckland were worth more than a million dollars, typically because they’re located on quarter-acre sections in expensive suburbs like Remuera and Tamaki. That’s an
incredible inefficiency – a sensible private developer would see the rising land value and take it as a signal to knock
down these homes and replace them with more dense, lower-cost housing.”
“National, as a party of small government, should realise that having politicians in charge of housing does not solve a
housing crisis.”