Will Govt moves to lower house prices work?

9:11 AM Monday Oct 29, 2012

The Government will work with councils to open up more land for development as it seeks to rein in New Zealand's high house prices.

Finance Minister Bill English will unveil the Government's response to the Productivity Commission's inquiry into home affordability after the Cabinet meets today. He said it would act to address one of the main issues identified by the commission - a lack of land for building new homes - but the package was a broad programme.

The commission focused on the need to free more land on city fringes for home-building, but Mr English said some of the best opportunities for development, particularly for low-priced housing, were within cities.

Will Govt moves to lower house prices work? Here is the latest selection of Your Views:

Whatthe? (New Zealand) | 10:33AM Monday, 29 Oct 2012

Undoubtedly not. But I am sure that property developers and in turn real estate agents will be thinking all their Christmases have come at once.

rossnz (Hamilton) | 10:33AM Monday, 29 Oct 2012

It is the same argument as with the foreign exchange rate. Some people benefit if prices stay high, others benefit if prices are reduced. It is all the government's fault. If they adopted the Green's Social Credit policies they would have two different prices, a high price for sellers and a lower price for buyers.

a kiwi saver (West Auckland) | 10:33AM Monday, 29 Oct 2012

I think that government needs to bring in a capital gains tax and stamp duty on house purchases along with other initiatives to get houses built. This would apply to anyone owning two or more houses.

A CGT would help pay off government debt and curb the property speculators (and we wouldn't need to hock valuable assets). The house prices in Oz would have been a lot higher if they hadn't had these curbs in place.

As it is you can still buy a property in Melbourne for $500-$550,000 quite near the city, and their wages are a lot higher than here. Those prices are now the norm out West Auckland, which doesn't compare in terms of public transport, job availability or cosmopolitan vibe.

Does the coalition have the guts to do it though? Somehow I doubt it.