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Affordable housing initiatives good for investorsTuesday 12 February 2008 The government has announced a package of initiatives to boost the supply of affordable houses. Thomas Chin, political lobbyist for the New Zealand Property Investors Federation, thinks the initiatives are good news for property investors.
Housing minister Maryan Street says the government plans to develop large-scale housing developments involving partnerships between government and the private sector to increase the amount of affordable housing being built. “A review of public land holdings will be undertaken to see what new land might be made available for significant housing developments involving a mix of public and private provision. “We will support the development of the not-for-profit sector to provide more affordable rental and owner-occupied houses for lower-middle income families or individuals in high cost areas.” Chin says the moves will be positive for the property market. “There will be some private sector landlords who might be able to participate in all of this social housing, particularly with leasing arrangements to Housing New Zealand.” In the meantime the government is launching a shared equity scheme in July for people in high cost areas, Street says, targeted at the purchase of newly built homes. While Chin thinks assisting people into the market place is ‘great’, he cautions that some people aren’t in the market because “the banks don’t want to touch them”. “Suddenly the taxpayer carries the risk if there are problems further down the track. Everyone has to live in a house, but not everyone has to own one,” he says. Street says the government is also going to re-evaluate some of the regulatory costs that have contributed to house price rises. National’s housing spokesperson Phil Heatley says regulatory costs and delays are the main cause of unaffordable houses, and the government’s new initiatives ignore this. “They refuse to make it easier for private landowners to subdivide their land, and they won’t reform the Resource Management Act or significantly streamline the Building Act to reduce compliance costs.” Comments from our readersNo comments yet Add your comment:Mortgagee sales to stay high for another 12-months Mortgagee sales are at historically high levels and numbers are expected to remain high in the New Year. Commercial property investors will foot the bill of proposed land tax Commercial property owners and investors will be left to “foot the bill” of a proposed land tax, according to the Property Council of New Zealand. Interest rates forecast to stay low Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard held the official cash rate at 2.50% today, as expected, and reiterated his view that the rates will stay low until the end of next year. |
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