"Affordable house charade"

Poltical and economic journalist Bernard Hickey has written in the NewsroomPro news service he edits that Horizon's survey on what New Zealandes think are affordable house prices shows up how much current KiwiBuild policy is a charade.

Mr Hickey (pictured) writes:

"The Government is pushing ahead with KiwiBuild as a key part of its affordable housing push, but the public sees the prices offered as far, far too high to be truly affordable.

"A nationwide online poll conducted by Horizon Research found New Zealanders think on average that an affordable home should cost around $375,000.

"That's almost $300,000 below the cost of a three bedroom KiwiBuild home in Auckland and $125,000 below the KiwiBuild price cap outside of Auckland and Queenstown.

"The Horizon Poll found Aucklanders thought an affordable home would cost around $468,400, which is more than half a million dollars below the average house value in Auckland in June and almost $200,000 below the KiwiBuild level pitched as affordable.

"Even in Christchurch, the affordable level was seen at $308,100, which is almost $200,000 below the average actual value in Christchurch.

"Essentially, the horse has bolted and the only way to get it back in the box for first home buyers to afford without help from families or lotto is to engineer a halving of land prices.

"But the brutal political truth is that home owners who vote don't want that. The rest is a charade where the Government pretends that $650,000 is affordable and that house prices can remain stable and rising wages will restore housing to true affordability."

See the list of prices for 20 centres which New Zealnders think are affordable.