Quote Originally Posted by Bjauck View Post
People do need accommodation but we live in a dynamic society these days, where home ownership is not necessarily the best way to secure accommodation for every person. People have to move for work; there is not the same social inevitability of marriage and having children.

For example,some single people may wish to invest in their own businesses and shareholdings rather than having their own home. So why should they pay tax on capital gains as opposed to the single people who invested and earned capital gains on their capital invested in their own home instead, helping to beat up the price of land so that some families are priced out of the market?
I get that not everyone needs to own a home. That's why there are 1 bedroom apartments for rent in major cities. I also understand it may not be fair for the single person renting, to pay CGT or other taxes on their shareholdings or investments. The reason for such exemptions or concessions of CGT is because not ALL asset classes are the same. The person that owns a home as a primary residence shouldn't be owning to make a profit. This is the distinction I learned in NZ where if a person wants a better house, they sell their existing and buy a newer one vs spending $ to IMPROVE the house they live in. Then there's the other issue of mortgaging. The person wanting to buy their 1st home can get a mortgage and typically, their goal is to pay it off. The person that chooses to rent and invest their earnings CAN NOT simply leverage into their shareholdings ; and it's difficult for self employed small business owners to borrow from the banks if the risks are high. Typically real estate has a much lower risk than all other investments. Don't believe me? Go to the bank and ask them why mortgages are easy to obtain vs borrowing for corporate ventures, building projects, etc.

[QUOTE Jay: One (maybe small part) of why lots of things are cheaper in other countries like the US, Canada etc is population, what we may buy in 6 months of say timber is boughr every other week - somethiong along those lines
So a little less margin maybe all along the chain to the retailer??? [/QUOTE]

Not particularly. I had some friends visit from Singapore to do a short tour around NZ. they could not believe how expensive things are here and the biggest shocker was paying $10 for a Starbucks coffee. He simply could not believe it. In Singapore with a population of 1M more than NZ, food is quite affordable and they have to import most of everything. Why is this so? Yes car ownership is more expensive in Sg but that's a given considering how small the country is. But public transport is so good in Sg you really don't need to drive.

A more probable reason why everything is so expensive in NZ is their marketing approach. Stuff like at Briscoes and Katmandu where the retail price tag is marked up x 10 times. Then they have a big 50% or 70% sale discount and they're STILL making a profit on the item. That kind of model just doesn't work forever as people have fled to online buying from overseas ; but in usual fashion the NZ gov't put on GST at a much lower threshold as to discourage online buying and support local retailers. A big difference to say Costco in N. America that work on a consignment + 5 or 10% markup approach.