11 May 2017

Rent-to-buy a solution to unaffordable housing

A Government backed rent-to-buy programme would open the door to home ownership for the four in five New Zealanders who can’t afford a house according to the Government’s new Housing Affordability Measure, the Green Party said today.

“With a rent-to-buy programme we could get thousands of families into their own homes, affordably,” Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei said.

“The Green Party’s Home for Life plan would save people $100 a week on mortgage payments. Payments would be no more than 30 percent of a household’s income.

“Rent-to-buy and progressive ownership programmes are in place around the world and there are some small scale examples working well in Queenstown, Rototua, and other parts of New Zealand.

“Rent-to-buy is proven to work and it’s the kind of solution that any responsible government would be taking a close look at.

“The new Housing Affordability Measure tells us what everyone’s known for ages: we have a housing crisis, it’s getting worse under National, and it’s worst in Auckland.

“National doesn’t have any new ideas to turn the housing crisis around, but the Green Party does,” Mrs Turei said.

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