So, just days after bemoaning the lack of a big, deep-pocketed developer to build affordable housing, the government has announced that Housing New Zealand will be going into the property development business in Christchurch:
The Government will build affordable homes for private sale for the first time in response to the Christchurch housing shortage.
Housing New Zealand plans to link with a private developer to build a mix of social housing and affordable homes for sale on five Christchurch sites.
[...]
Housing New Zealand plans to build between 200 and 350 houses in Christchurch over the next 18 months at a cost of between $60m and $90m.
Booker said 100 of those homes might not be owned by Housing New Zealand.
Socialism wins! But the government isn't all the way there yet - there's no guarantee that Housing New Zealand's new affordable homes won't just be snapped up by greedy landlords and parasitic Boomers and used to further keep young New Zealanders in rent-bondage while farming tax-free capital gains. As the Greens point out, it needs to be combined with positive measures to make sure these homes go to people in need: rent-to-by schemes, cheap loans for first home-buyers, and limiting sales to first home-buyers and social housing providers. Otherwise we're just subsidising the same people who are causing this crisis.
Still, they're halfway there, and that's a positive move.
