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The argument that we need to build more homes to tackle the housing affordability crisis was underscored this week by reports that suggest loan-to-value ratio (LVR) restrictions are having unintended – and negative – effects on the housing market. According to the Registered Master Builders Association, the number of enquiries into new homes has fallen by 30 per cent since the Reserve Bank’s limit on how much money retail banks can lend on low-equity mortgages kicked in at the start of October. Read more

Fire the over-priced policy analysts, number crunchers and economics whizzes, because I’ve solved the housing affordability crisis. The solution is obvious: we need to ban home improvement shows. Read more

If New Zealand needed another timely reminder about the opportunity to sell our natural resources to the increasingly wealthy Chinese, it came this week from The Economist, which took note of the country’s water crisis. According to the magazine, water scarcity means the average person in China only uses about 400 cubic metres a year, approximately a quarter of what the average American uses, and well under the international definition of water stress. Read more

It’s time we asked the fundamental question. Can we have strong local economies and vigorous communities when so much public decision-making is made by central government in Wellington? Read more

Think that New Zealand is the only nation that faces house price inflation? Well we are not, but we are in a club of mostly Anglosphere nations that experience rabid house price inflation. Read more

Rightly or wrongly, Britain and its former Antipodean colonies are obsessed with property – it’s imperative that you get that critical first step on the housing ladder. Given this level of obsession, it’s easy to see why housing has become a political football in all three countries, with politicians regularly trotting out new policies to help people buy a first home. Read more

At the National Party conference last weekend there were a number of announcements around housing; some were helpful, and some were less helpful. The well-reported aspects of the housing announcement have been an increase in the availability of Kiwisaver subsidies and the expansion of ‘Welcome Home’ loans. Read more