tdgeek:

 

I guess if the current Govt ingnored the housing affordability crisis, they would be blamed for that. Hardly an equal assessment would that be?  

 

It depends. Housing reform was a big part of the Key Govt's election plank as prices had already gone loopy pre-GFC, along with RMA reform. Both things floundered and never happened. 

It's not too dissimilar to how Labour insisted black and blue that Kiwibuild was a) realistic and b) would deliver the kind of supply boost we needed. They also discussed urban planning reform like getting rid of the urban boundary. Again, crickets. 

At some point you're just defending one party's right to complain about housing and then do nothing about it once elected over another. I really hope we're past that. We have a very small group of people who are taking on 30 year mortgages at 40% of incomes (two incomes, kids or career setbacks be damned) to pay for a first home, with little chance of being mortgage-free before retirement. 

We then have a much larger group of people who will be stuck renting forever because getting a deposit together and paying escalating rents is impossible.

And that's to say nothing of the people stuck in waiting lists, or in motels or living in garages or cars. Fixing housing will continue to be a political no-go zone as long as people who own houses see them as their main investment when they retire. Even Ardern is not willing to expend political capital by taxing capital gains, hence ruling it out as long as she is leader; even though she has a majority in the house in this term. 

I think if it was actually important, they would have done something more substantive by now. I can only conclude that it isn't.