I am well past expecting delivery of any promise made by a politician from no matter which side. Sure my interpretation of what was said was just one possibility.
At risk of counting the number of angels on a pin-head, I think Hipkins managed to respond to the question in a fairly non-committal way:“We've already seen a shift in house prices from the peaks that we were seeing. I guess to reframe your question, we're certainly not going to be doing things that aim to bring house prices down.” So if prices are already dropping, If Hipkins does anything at all in response, it would probably need to be price stimulatory in order for house prices to stop falling.
Of course he has tried to give himself a free pass, because he could say the aim of his housing policy was to increase supply of residential land or new housing etc. However if it causes prices to fall or continue to fall then he could respond that that was not the aim of the policy. He presumably does not want to scare away too much the powerful electoral clout of existing home owners and property investors?
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