Rt Hon Winston Peters

New Zealand First Leader

Member of Parliament for Northland
1 AUGUST 2016

Changes to Homestart Pointless in Auckland - Peters

The Auckland housing market is so out of reach for first home buyers the government’s twiddling with the KiwiSaver Homestart scheme will not make a blind bit of difference, says New Zealand First.

“Raising the income and price caps is just a complete waste of time,” New Zealand First Leader and Northland Member of Parliament Rt Hon Winston Peters says.

“The whole purpose of the KiwiSaver scheme is supposed to be saving for retirement anyway.

“The income cap for an individual has gone up $5000 to $85,000 and from $120,000 to $130,000 for a couple.

“The fact is house price growth has been outstripping salaries for a long time in Auckland and a large number of people are not earning this money.

“When you have very ordinary houses selling for close to $1 million in Auckland – the new price caps of $550,000 to $600,000 for an existing house and $600,000 to $650,000 for a new house makes it all pointless for the great bulk of first home buyers.

“The government needs a serious dose of reality – they must realise Auckland’s spiralling house prices are being driven by record immigration, off-shore buying and a serious shortage of supply.

“Instead of playing around the edges, and now with KiwiSaver, government must cease with mindless excuses and blaming everybody else, put an immediate cap on immigration and present affordable housing supply policies – something totally absent at this time,” Mr Peters says.

ENDS

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