If National wins ...

[777]

Really? How quickly, FP? Is there not a case for the government to step in and speed up this process by providing incentives for regional manufacturing and SMEs, for example? Would it not also be useful for the State to get all of their housing estate up to scratch? The Herald reports that of 2500 State Houses that are empty at the moment, just over 200 are ready for tenants. That's terrible! National's policy is to run down the state house portfolio and gift it over to the private sector, that's what they're really up to.

Does that mean 2300 are still contaminated with"P"?

[fungus pudding]

Does that mean 2300 are still contaminated with"P"?

Not at all. Some of them have only had a few walls and doors kicked in.

[artemis]

..... Would it not also be useful for the State to get all of their housing estate up to scratch? The Herald reports that of 2500 State Houses that are empty at the moment, just over 200 are ready for tenants. That's terrible! National's policy is to run down the state house portfolio and gift it over to the private sector, that's what they're really up to.

That is not an informed opinion. Housing NZ report regularly on state house vacancies. As at 31 March 2016 for all NZ there were 2624 vacancies, of which 202 were ready to let. Of the rest 801 were pending sale or redevelopment and most of the rest were under repair. 403 undergoing meth contamination and a further 151 in earthquake prone buildings or affected by natural disaster.

All contaminated places are caused by tenants or their mates. Damage in some under repair places will be caused by tenants, some will be wear and tear or upgrading on vacancy..

They also report by territorial local authority, which means that it is fairly simple to map vacancies against applicants. Over 40% of applicants are single people or couples without dependent children, all waiting for 1 bedroom places. That size is not the traditional state house size, which was for decades geared towards families with children. The gap needs to be filled to be sure and may be partly caused by some TAs moving out of pensioner housing, as well as an increase in the number of older households.

Cannot help but think that there must be other options for some of those singles and couples, especially if outside Auckland and collecting married level of superannuation.

Generally houses will not be sold if there is demand for the size and location from applicants on the register.

[Bjauck]

...
Auckland will never be cheap and already can hardly be considered affordable for those on average incomes. Common sense and supply and demand factors will ensure this will happen

Trouble is, there is limited supply and on the demand side you have uncontrolled local investors and indeed overseas investors with access to their overseas capital, loans and income. So as long as overseas investors think NZ is a safe bet, the affordability of housing for Aucklanders who just want to buy a home will be just one minor factor.

The latest budget just shows that the government thinks it is a supply issue and even then its most substantive response seems to be to vaguely threaten the local government which it set up.

[artemis]

Trouble is, there is limited supply and on the demand side you have uncontrolled local investors and indeed overseas investors with access to their overseas capital, loans and income. So as long as overseas investors think NZ is a safe bet, the affordability of housing for Aucklanders who just want to buy a home will be just one minor factor.

The latest budget just shows that the government thinks it is a supply issue and even then its most substantive response seems to be to vaguely threaten the local government which it set up.

Maybe, but also need to take into account the large number of people with impaired credit and rental history who are never going to be top of a landlord's list. Every year tens of thousands of applications to the Tenancy Tribunal, 90% by landlords. Of course landlord's won't win every case but that doesn't matter as their names pop up in a search anyway, with details of the decision and reasons.

Add people with bad credit or repaying loans, one or two of them.

Those homeless or overcrowded reported in the media - hardly ever say why they can't rent. Saying cannot afford is skating across the surface if the family budget and tenancy/credit is not examined.

[Bjauck]

Maybe, but also need to take into account the large number of people with impaired credit and rental history who are never going to be top of a landlord's list. Every year tens of thousands of applications to the Tenancy Tribunal, 90% by landlords. Of course landlord's won't win every case but that doesn't matter as their names pop up in a search anyway, with details of the decision and reasons.

Add people with bad credit or repaying loans, one or two of them.

Those homeless or overcrowded reported in the media - hardly ever say why they can't rent. Saying cannot afford is skating across the surface if the family budget and tenancy/credit is not examined.

Those with bad financial skills/impaired credit/low incomes still need to have a roof over their heads. Increasingly the government are devolving that responsibility in Auckland to the burgeoning private investor and overseas investor sectors. A corollary to that, is to beef up the security of tenancy to those "good" tenants who are increasingly shut out of being able to afford to own their own homes. For a start the government needs to legislate to allow sitting tenants to keep their tenancy when the house is sold - the sale of the house should not be a valid reason to terminate the tenancy. Forced tenancy termination when a property is sold is an extra cost for an otherwise good tenant.

[neopoleII]

""For a start the government needs to legislate to allow sitting tenants to keep their tenancy when the house is sold - the sale of the house should not be a valid reason to terminate the tenancy. Forced tenancy termination when a property is sold is an extra cost for an otherwise good tenant. '"

so if an old woman "like my mother who is 72" decides to sell her rental in manurewa because of the hassle..... this rule would mean that only an investor could buy the house and not a first home buyer?
by the way.... her rental is still empty after 10 weeks now after the full interior rebuild from P contamination.
its empty because rules have been placed on the rental agency as to who can rent the house.
simple rules as mentioned before in my other post, but lots of potential renters fail.

[winner69]

I'm told over half of National's $668m surplus is WINZ debt

Just as well they weren't 'grants'

[neopoleII]

be interesting to see how much of the tobacco tax has helped the surplus.
has to be a $billion + in income minus the actual health related costs.
and soon to bring in even more.
if tobacco was illegal, there would be no surplus.
crime would go up, the ex smokers would all grow old and healthy
and the pension plans would crumble
we'll end up with a couple of million healthy old timers in 20 years time all wanting to be looked after.
maybe with National importing thousands of immigrants now....... we'll have some workers to support the horde
of healthy oldtimers.

[Bjauck]

be interesting to see how much of the tobacco tax has helped the surplus.
has to be a $billion + in income minus the actual health related costs.
and soon to bring in even more.
if tobacco was illegal, there would be no surplus.
crime would go up, the ex smokers would all grow old and healthy
and the pension plans would crumble
we'll end up with a couple of million healthy old timers in 20 years time all wanting to be looked after.
maybe with National importing thousands of immigrants now....... we'll have some workers to support the horde
of healthy oldtimers.

I agree - immigration has been encouraged to provide youthful workers to help support the well-looked after ageing boomers, who did not produce enough children and to replace the young Kiwis who went to Australia! The tobacco tax is needed to help fund the health-care costs of smoking-related illness and disability. Perhaps a sugar tax is needed too.