Missing the Housing Plot in the Supercity
Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
Member
of Parliament for Northland
19 MAY 2016
Missing the Housing Plot in the Supercity
National and Labour are “missing the plot” on the Auckland housing crisis by ignoring the causes and then wanting to knock down the Supercity boundaries, says New Zealand First.
“Instead of addressing the real issues of artificial demand and speculative land banking they want to create an ugly, urban sprawl with no supporting bus and rail links or other critical infrastructure,” says New Zealand First Leader and MP for Northland Rt Hon Winston Peters.
“It’s the reversing of the saying, build it and they
will come. They’ve come, and they’re coming, and no one
is building.
“New Zealand First would legislate to
outlaw land banking just as Hong Kong does where no-one can
sit on land for more than two years without developing it.
If they don’t develop they are penalised.
“National pretended to address foreign buying with IRD and account numbers but all this did was cause a momentary lull while applications were done, then they produced totally suspect data on foreign buyers.
“At the same time National continues to ignore demand while Statistics NZ states each month that over half of all immigrants say they will settle in Auckland. Naturally, they want a home.
“These numbers are more than the population of Hastings arriving each year.
“Record immigration and offshore buying must stop. It’s long since time Kiwis were given a fair chance of home ownership and affordable rentals.”
ENDS