Capital Gains Tax

[Bjauck]

....
- In the meantime, a large proportion of Gen X'ers and Millenials probably need to come to the realisation that home ownership is not going to be the norm for their generations. Their job is to stop procreating - which has been helped by slow wage growth relative to house price growth - i.e. large families (say, 5+) are unaffordable
- Therefore, in 30 years time we have less people, more houses and prices go down.

If home ownership is not going to be the norm then it should not be treated as a special case. Net imputed rent should be taxed just like the interest from a term deposit is taxed or non-cash or fringe benefits are taxed.

Immigration not natural population increase has been a big driver in creating the demand for the limited supply. Boomers were happy to see this result in a surge in prices for their homes and rental investments often enjoying more in this untaxed capital gain than from employment or business.

I know it's very simplistic and that the government can and will tweak around the edges but, as we've seen, all governments (regardless of colour) have struggled to make much of an impact.

They have been kicking the can down the road.

The variable in there that needs some attention is wage growth. And by wage growth I mean, productivity driven wage growth, not wage growth driven by government intervention (minimum wages) which just leads to price increases and inflation. At the moment, it seems like our pollies are throwing darts at the board with things like fees-free university, etc.

Productivity growth requires capital investment in business - why invest into business when you have gotten so much untaxed leveraged capital gain in real estate? Successful NZ companies have so often had to relocate their listings to Australia to access capital...

Offering meaningful change makes Parties unelectable in NZ?