Govt backtracking on housing as prices rise

green-party

Tue Feb 14 2017 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Govt backtracking on housing as prices rise

Tuesday, 14 February 2017, 11:02 am
Press Release: Green Party

14 February 2017

Housing Minister Nick Smith is already backtracking on Bill English’s suggestion he’d provide 69,000 homes in Auckland, as house prices continue to skyrocket across the country, the Green Party said today.

“The Government is fudging the numbers to create headlines they can’t back up. Meanwhile, house prices keep rising and not enough are getting built,” Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei said.

“There’s a huge opportunity for the Government to step up and build thousands of affordable homes for people across the country, but National is shying away from that.

“The Prime Minister was reported yesterday saying the Government would provide 69,000 homes in Auckland but Housing Minister Nick Smith has already this morning had to back down from his boss’ comments saying it’s just a ‘potential’ number.

“The Auckland Housing Accord, which the Government signed up to, said Auckland had a shortage of 20,000-30,000 homes but now National thinks the nationwide shortage is only 10,000-20,000. They’re shifting the goalposts instead of building homes.

“Those numbers can’t both be accurate – not enough houses have been built in Auckland over the last few years for that to be true.

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“Bill English and Nick Smith should stop fudging the numbers and just get on with building affordable homes for New Zealanders to live in.

“Today’s house price data from REINZ shows the housing affordability crisis is still in full swing, while National’s still sitting on the sidelines bickering about the numbers.

“It looks like the Government is going to continue relying on the private market to fix the housing crisis, which hasn’t worked and won’t suddenly start working.

“It’s pretty clear that to solve the housing crisis we need a new government that will build thousands of affordable homes, crack down on speculators, and tax property fairly,” said Mrs Turei.

ends

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