Next Prime Minister must tackle foreign speculators
Phil Twyford
MP for Te
Atatū
Housing
Spokesperson
MEDIA STATEMENT
6 December 2016
Next Prime Minister must tackle foreign speculators
The public rightly puts much of the blame for the housing bubble at the feet of foreign speculators, and the next Prime Minister must listen to their concerns, says Labour’s Housing spokesperson Phil Twyford.
A new poll from the Property Institute shows that the public thinks the biggest culprits causing out of control housing prices are overseas speculators. Government data indicates 13% of house purchases are by foreign speculators. The poll also shows that the public thinks the Government is having relatively little impact on house prices compared to other factors, despite the government’s attempts to ease house price rises.
“When National eventually decides who their new leader is, their first order of business should be to ban foreign speculators from buying existing houses in New Zealand.
“John Key was too out of touch to adopt Labour’s plan to stop foreign speculators. He didn’t listen to the public and screwed the numbers to try to play down the scale of the problem.
“National’s failure to act has allowed overseas speculators to hoover up our houses and push up prices beyond the reach of families looking for their slice of the Kiwi dream.
“The public knows National has failed. They rank the Government as having the least impact on house prices, despite National’s endless succession of half-baked policies that they claim are fixing the housing crisis.
“The next Prime Minister needs to admit Labour has had it right all along, and stop overseas speculators using our homes as gambling chips”, says Phil Twyford.