National’s housing spokesperson, Judith Collins, is again rubbishing KiwiBuild for being middle class welfare that doesn’t serve those in need.
However she’s comfortable with foreign buyers accounting for nearly 10% of residential property purchases in central Auckland (the Waitemata board area) in the September quarter.
“Housing Minister Phil Twyford’s admission KiwiBuild isn’t for low income families is further evidence of an ill thought out, untargeted lottery costing billions but not making a difference to the lives of those who need it most,” Collins said.
Asked by interest.co.nz whether given her concern about those in need, she was comfortable with the level of foreign property ownership in New Zealand, she said she was “very comfortable”.
Collins explained that without foreigners buying into apartment blocks in Auckland, the city would lose new developments.
With the Government’s foreign buyer ban having come into effect on October 22, she said this was already happening.
“The very nasty 'Chinese sounding names' rhetoric from Phil Twyford and the Labour Party has actually resulted in fewer houses now being available, so that’s why I’m comfortable,” she said.
Challenged on whether there were in fact other factors influencing major developments being stalled, Collins said no.
“I happen to know a lot about this market and that is exactly what’s caused it.
“So a lack of pre-sales, because people weren’t coming in from overseas to buy properties, apartments for their kids to study, live in – those are the sorts of things that have stopped that market.
“And it’s happened almost overnight. As soon as there’s a change of government, it stopped.
“I actually think that’s a sad thing, because no one’s taking houses anywhere. They’re not picking them up, putting them on a shipment, taking them somewhere. These are houses and apartments that will eventually be lived in by kiwis.”
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90 Comments
Saving4... A thought for you to consider. If you ever wanted to collapse someone elses' housing market and economy then there is no point buying all the property in Palmy.... It's far better (quicker) to use your debt (credit creation by banks run by China) to inflate the top end of the largest cities in your target market... Ideally places with space and resources you need, Canada, New Zealand, Australia .... That cash will naturally filter out to the regions and have the rest of the Country mired in debt... 'White flight' is akin to a Trojan horse for everywhere on the periphery... The initial pump of credit (foreign cash) facilitating 10 -12 subsequent transactions but also increasing the debt levels of the 80,000 - 100,000 kiwis who try and compete with it each year..... It's genius policy... Then the crash happens and you hoover up the rest when the banks go bust who lent mortgages against the bubble.... was it all part of a 7 year post GFC plan by the PRC?
Yeah. It’s enraging that the Nats have the audacity to preach us on ways to ramp up housing supply when all they did in their 9 years in power was sit on their hands. Foreign buyers could do everything just short of buying Auckland homes on Alibaba under their government, did it help relieve the housing shortage? Nope.
When even David Seymour said that the supply side of the housing market was broken while in coalition, we know how badly things were managed (or not).
Labour/Greens local pollies (Len Brown, Penny Hulse and Phil Goff) created an artificial land shortage and jacked construction costs through the roof. Foreign speculators condoned by National made a killing in a land price bubble. Then Labour (Phil Twyford) got elected on by saying they would break the land speculators bubble, by opening up land supply. But then did not do pop the bubble, instead now Labour are pumping $billions of taxpayer funds into sustaining the same price bubble.
None of our politicians give a toss about housing supply - under supply and homelessness is endemic to both party's approaches. They're all just trying to keep a bubble of speculation going for another year, to keep political heads in the trough.
Form the 2018 Register of pecuniary interests summary report:
Hon Judith Collins (National, Papakura)
2 Other companies and business entities
CDL Hotels Limited – hotel operator4 Beneficial interests in, and trusteeships of, trusts
Sigmund Trust (trustee and beneficiary)
Judith Collins Family Trust (trustee and beneficiary)
Schoeller Family Trust (trustee)
Alexandra Rose Trust (trustee)
Barbara Collins Family Trust (trustee)
Edith Moorman Trust (trustee)6 Real property
Family home (owned by trusts), Auckland
Commercial and residential property (owned by superannuation scheme), Wellington
Residential property (owned by superannuation scheme), Nelson7 Superannuation schemes
Holly Superannuation Scheme9 Debtors
Holly Superannuation Scheme – on demand loan*10 Creditors
ASB Bank – mortgage12 Gifts
Tickets to two Super Rugby games – Nib NZ Limited
Ticket to NRL Nines – Duco Promotions
Tickets to rugby games: Wales v Tonga and All Blacks v Samoa – SkyCity
Tickets to All Blacks v Great British Lions – NZ Rugby
Tickets to All Blacks v Great British Lions – Todd Corporation
Tickets to ASB Tennis – ASB
Tickets to ASB Tennis – Tennis Auckland
Tickets to ASB Tennis – SkyCity
Tickets to Adele – Darren Brady
Tickets to Joseph Parker fight – Sky TV
https://www.parliament.nz/media/4798/summary-report-2018-final.pdf
all NZ MP's disclose there assets and interests yearly. its part of making them accountable and keeping corruption out of our democracy BUT that stops as soon as they leave parliament and thats when they get the real payoff.
they use a lot of trusts to hide things
you will also notice many houses listed in super schemes thats to take advantage of tax laws and receive the living allowance from parliamentary services
lets just say they learn how to game the system and that is why change was fought hard (from all sides of the house) and only came about because the few at the top were not involved in rental housing so eyes were not tainted
https://www.parliament.nz/en/mps-and-electorates/mps-financial-interest…
Yvil - as others have pointed out, it's a legal requirement of all Parliamentarians to declare their pecuniary interests - see the link I provided. Here's another of interest;
Dr Jian Yang (National, List)
1 Company directorships and controlling interests
Jinjan Limited – property ownership
LY & ES Trustee Limited – trustee services (for JEJS Family Trust)4 Beneficial interests in, and trusteeships of, trusts
JEJS Family Trust (discretionary beneficiary)6 Real property
Family home (owned by trust), Auckland
Rental property (x3, owned by Jinjan Limited), Auckland7 Superannuation schemes
Fisher Funds TWO KiwiSaver9 Debtors
JEJS Family Trust – loan to the trust to purchase the family home*10 Creditors
ASB Bank – mortgage11 Overseas travel costs
China – international conference. Contributor to accommodation: Chinese
Government.
China – 6th International Festival of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Contributor
to travel: Chengdu Hen’xin Tea Limited. Contributor to accommodation: Chengdu
City Government.12 Gifts
Oil painting – Carissa Meng
Watercolour painting – Cao Jun
And not to be seen to be partisan;
Raymond Huo (Labour, List)
1 Company directorships and controlling interests
Vivafields Limited (shareholder) – rental property investment4 Beneficial interests in, and trusteeships of, trusts
Chesterfields Trust (trustee and beneficiary)
NZ Chinese Language Week Trust (trustee)5 Organisations and trusts seeking Government funding
Asia New Zealand Foundation (advisory board member) – promoting Asia-New Zealand relations
NZ China Council (advisory board member) – promoting New Zealand-China relations6 Real property
Family home (owned by family trust), Auckland
Rental investment properties (x9, as a shareholder of the company that owns the properties), Auckland7 Superannuation schemes
Booster Superannuation Scheme
ANZ KiwiSaver Scheme10 Creditors
Westpac Bank – mortgage
ANZ Bank – mortgage
And of the x9 rental properties owned by the company Vivafields, he is a 99% shareholder (owns 99 of the 100 shares in it).
Possibly quite exposed to property then! How can you take a shadow housing minister seriously when they have so much skin in the game... National 'Fuedalism' Baroness Collins really is the wrong person to be discussing housing matters.... I wonder if she gets special rates from her landlords ASB for promoting the bubble in debt accumulation of young kiwis?
in the interest of balance here Phils list
no rentals just owns the house he lives in and a couple of managed fund super schemes
and nobody invited him to any corporate boxes
Hon Phil Twyford (Labour, Te Atatū)
4 Beneficial interests in, and trusteeships of, trusts Easingwood and Twyford Family Trust (trustee and beneficiary)
6 Real property Family home (jointly owned), Te Atatū, Auckland
7 Superannuation schemes Fisher Funds TWO KiwiSaver
10 Creditors ASB Bank – mortgage
and there is the problem,
why not will get much better pay and if he moves to anywhere but Sydney housing is cheaper
also no rules were put in place for the crown to tax that profit
and last quick way to pay off the student loan
national are correct in kiwibuild is aimed at the middle class but they and labour before them aided in allowing it to get away from the middle class OO
Absolutely spot on with your last comment, when Doctors (even junior ones) and someone with a qualification in marketing (I think?), both well paid roles aren't able to afford a home under normal circumstances, something is drastically, drastically wrong with the system. That should be the real point of discussion, how have we got to the point that teachers, doctors, engineers, MPs cannot afford a house?
From my perspective, this is exactly the kind of young couple we want to keep in New Zealand - and in Auckland in particular. We have a doctors shortage. The last thing we want is another young NZ trained medical graduate to decide there is no hope for his/her future in NZ.
So, if they are happy with their good fortune in the lottery, great! And let's get on with building state housing too for those less educated and/or less capable of solid future earnings prospects.
Many 'Interest' journalists suggested the obvious implemented in other parts of the world: if foreigners want to speculate in NZ housing they can help build them rather than buy existing stock. That way National could have had it's cake and eat it too. But over 9 years it did nothing at all and there is no evidence it would do anything at all when reelected.
Trevor42 I haven't invested in another country. I purchased a family home in the UK when I lived there... and will purchase a family home in NZ in due course. Neither purchases would constitute an investment or speculation.
I'm a Brit, my husband is a Kiwi. Our kids are dual. We're hardly an example of the speculative purchasing that has been occurring, or an example of global capital looking for yield.
As for foreign purchasing. In a housing affordability crisis, I do think it is perfectly valid to look at all potential causes. Maybe foreign purchases have contributed, maybe they haven't? It will be hard to know when records weren't kept or made available till very recently.
Be that as it may, there was sufficient support via the democratic process for such a ban to be introduced. I haven't demonised anyone at any point or been remotely hypocritical.
Fritz. I love her Go Judith GO. Too many green eyed losers on this article, who have done nothing with their life and them lack the intelligence to see the fruits of working hard and organising the financial affairs properly.
Twyfords photo shoot, shows Kiwibuild for what it is a Media Exercise.
'Foreign Buyer ban reducing housing supply.' Is she completely mental.... Foreign buyers aren't coming over here with bricks and mortar and building the sodding houses... They're buying them through brokers and investment companies and most of them will never have even left China themselves....
Maybe when they’re done with housing they could come over here and buy up all the hospital equipment. Charge patients with kidney failure for the privilege of using the dialysis machine, or prevent people from using it at all. Wait for the waiting list to grow and then sell it back to the hospital for a profit.
What do you all make of this https://www.trademe.co.nz/property/residential-property-for-sale/auctio… and this appearing at the bottom of the ad "Chinese inquiries contact ............."
Perhaps not racist, but concerned that such people are from very different backgrounds from what we may be comfortable with eg Westminster style politics,, democracy, freedom of speech, human rights, animal welfare, role of the state... you can add more if you wish.
Slamming every concern as racist is such an easy thing to do.
The subject of this topic needs to shift somewhat. We are discussing foreign buyers currently shopping in our residential property market. How many properties are being sold to them varies depending on who you chose to believe. But taking a look at the impact of them and trying to understand how many properties are currently OWNED by foreigners (non-residents) presents a bigger picture that is concerning. Running some very simple equations and using just 4% as an average value, after only 18 quarters or four and a half years, more than 50% of any market is owned by foreigners. At 3% the time frame goes out to six years. So whatever figure you want to believe, and even taking into account that some of the sales will be by foreigners to other foreigners (not accounted for) the total number of properties OWNED by foreigners will likely be substantial, and having a significant impact on our market. As no Government previously has shown even the slightest inclination to act against foreign buyers, and the current property crisis started shortly after 2000 (my opinion, and i know a specific cases of foreign buyers in our market then) that means this issue could be far worse than anyone suspects.
The 18 KiwiBore houses are crappy box’s that are not worth the money they are paying for them.
Aucklanders seem to have this idea that they need to be paying ridiculous money for houses.
Reality is that there is a far better lifestyle away from Auckland but too many have blinkers on.
Have spoken to several Auckland couples in recent few months as they have moved to ChCh and all have now seen that Auckland is just so overrated.
They see better opportunities and better lifestyle in ChCh and they are correct!
Exactly if life was so great in Christchurch wouldn't you want to downplay it so it remains great ? How great it is only depends on where you are in life, its all relative. Personally I liked Christchurch, visited it several times over the years on business but post quake its a dead duck. Got a great life in Auckland now, am out of the burbs and into the country so there is nowhere in Christchurch that is as "great".
Tim - if you only read the NZ papers and watch TVNZ with their anti Trump rhetoric, you are missing all the real news. I receive information from both Democrats and Republicans which shows what we hear over here is usually from the Democrat anti Trump side of politics in the USA. Coloured people are turning in droves with polls showing up to 40% will vote Republican.
Am artificial housing cost price price bubble is created. Party A inflates the bubble by inviting foreign speculation, with the lucky few making a killing. Party B inflates the bubble with taxpayer funds, granting profits to a lucky few through a lottery. Party A says Party B is wasteful, Party B says Party A is greedy.
Meanwhile the bubble inflates and people are made homeless. Politicians are all assholes.
The percentage of properties bought by foreigners is only one side of the ledger and gives the impression that they are hoovering up all properties to the detriment of Kiwis. However, this number should be offset with the percentage of properties sold by foreigners, but never is.
If we found for instance that, say, 10% of properties in Auckland are sold by foreigners, do we actually have the problem we think we have?
I cannot find the percentage sold by foreigners anywhere though, making it impossible to determine whether we have this problem.
Which begs the question, what do our politicians base their policies on?
About 8 years ago I built 3 apartments in Judith Collins' electorate, Papakura which is in south Auckland.
I had a LOT of trouble with the since absorbed Papakura Council. And also later on with Auckland Transport.
I appealed to Judith many times. Didn't even get a reply.
Oh and half way through National raised GST by 2.5% just adding to costs.
Now she's harping on about how the other party can't build enough houses.
She's a hypocrite. And is only concerned about her own political future, nothing else.
I know the GST increases on materials alone was incredibly expensive, especially to the greater population. Yet they get praise for non existent tax cuts while Labour is demonised as a tax party? National placed a killing blow to the public for all expenses including necessary medical costs to stay alive and they are ignored because they light a fire under their trolls arses to spout BS. The building cost jumps from GST increases alone at all levels of development were insane. Yet they had no reason for the cash grab with the increase of national debt in tens of billions at the same time. Do one or the other but to have both is damning the nation's future by crippling the current gen and hobbling the future gens with massive debt. Even Christchurch's recovery was non existent. They need billions for re-re-repairs from dodgy work, insurance and finance company bailouts, and even public works in the area suffers. Even the Dhb threatening to cut services severely because they went wild with debt and cannot extend it much more. It just makes Canterbury an even more dangerous place to live. Yet the South is more pro National?! are they all bottlers, fonterra and tourism operators voting en masse or have the public suffered severe mental trauma with many are still in recovery from a TBI and the memory loss dominates.
Well it is known that Judith Collins failed the Voight-Kampff test so is most likely a replicant, not human. She is well known for her corruption with the Chinese company Oravida and regularly spouts abuse online. So yes she is technically in costume and very scary for the ethical kids.
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