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This submission in response to the Commerce Commission’s (Commission) Residential Building Supplies Market Study Preliminary Issues Paperi is made by The New Zealand Initiative (the Initiative), a think tank supported primarily by major New Zealand businesses. In combination, our members employ more than 150,000 people. Read more

The Initiative has, since its founding, undertaken substantial research into housing supply, zoning, and local government. About a third of the Initiative’s work for the past decade has been devoted to housing and local government. Read more

The Initiative welcomes the government’s decision to reform the planning system. The Resource Management Act (RMA) has been disastrous. Read more

Pressure to intervene in the rental market is growing. The government’s new housing package, announced in March of this year, will increase rents and reduce the supply of rental accommodation to the detriment of many. Read more

On Tuesday morning, 23 March 2021, the Government announced a set of housing policies that, among other things would substantially change the tax treatment of interest payments on residential investment properties. The changes to tax policy are substantial. Read more

The year 2020 was one none of us will forget in a hurry. Lives were put on hold. Read more

The political ‘buck passing’ of the responsibility for unaffordable housing by successive governments in New Zealand has created extremely expensive housing markets in cities such as Auckland and Wellington – and a national housing crisis. Auckland is the sixth least affordable city among 92 major global housing markets, according to the 2020 Demographia housing survey. Read more

New Zealand has long struggled with housing affordability. Since 2000, real house prices nearly trebled. Read more

New Zealand faces its worst recession in nearly a century. Unfortunately, the economic response to the challenges of Covid-19 leaves much to be desired. Read more

A new survey reveals that the majority of those surveyed support a move towards local services being managed and provided by local decision-makers. With New Zealanders’ attitudes towards devolved government shifting, many believe now is the time to explore localism. Read more