Media Release Monday, 19 June 2006

Greens Mistaken about Housing Prices

New Green Party co-leader Dr Russell Norman is engaging in voodoo economics by claiming it is foreigners buying up New Zealand properties that are driving up housing prices.

It is the urban containment policies promoted by the Greens and some local governments that is causing housing to become unaffordable, according to Manukau City Councillor Dick Quax.

Recently Auckland was identified as the 15th most unaffordable city in a survey of 99 cities in Australia, Canada, the Untied States, New Zealand, Ireland and England by a report published by Demograhia. It showed that the median house price in Auckland is now 6.6 times the median annual household income.

“In the past the balance between income and house prices has generally been at a ratio of 2 – 3 times the median income to the median house price”.

That balance has been destroyed because politicians have interfered in the market by imposing artificial boundaries around our large cities and creating a land scarcity says Cr Quax.

“There is no shortage of land and if the Greens were really serious about providing housing that is affordable to those on low and middle incomes they need to start advocating for less regulation in the land market and not more as they seem to want to do.

ENDS

© Scoop Media