Winston Peters: Housing crisis hitting Far North hard

NZ First leader Winston Peters

While Aucklanders move north looking for a good deal, they are pushing values of homes up - from Whangarei, Kerikeri and surrounds, across the north.

The housing crisis is having a massive impact across the country and Northland is sadly caught up in it.

Rents are rising, investors from Auckland have arrived, along with permanent residents from the big city.

You can't blame them - they cash up by selling their house and buy in beautiful Northland and have money in their pockets. The number of rentals has reduced. Renters are told to move out but there is nowhere to go.

Kerikeri has experienced this. Dargaville is now, and Kaitaia has a long-standing housing problem.

It's great that Northland is attractive to homeowners and new families will help revitalise towns but there's a downside to sort out.

In Dargaville a dozen families, who mostly work at the abattoir, are struggling to find housing. Some are living in cars.

This situation in Northland didn't happen overnight. It's the result of a hands-off approach to housing.

While Aucklanders move north looking for a good deal, they are pushing values of homes up - from Whangarei, Kerikeri and surrounds, across the north.

House prices in the Kaipara have gone up 25.3 per cent with the average price for a house now around $470,000, whilst the Far North has seen the average price go up to $399,000.

Former Prime Minister John Key claimed in 2007 there was a housing crisis.

So what's changed 10 years on?

National denies there's a crisis and rolls out countless excuses. Their philosophy of letting the market rule has caused chaos. Relying on developers to build cheaper, affordable houses does not work - and many have failed to build affordable houses, favouring more expensive homes for profit, that too was foreseeable.

Meanwhile, government has been selling off state houses and land, while the number of homeless Kiwis grows.

There has been no planning, no vision, and no effort to keep ahead of demand.

A sensible government would have been watching the spiralling population growth, caused by mass immigration policy, and soaring house prices in Auckland and acted early to secure land and get houses built for those here already, and those coming also.

That's a huge failure and New Zealanders will pay the price for years. The government spent $12.6 million on emergency housing in the last quarter - money that could have gone into building housing.

A wise government would address the massive numbers driving up demand for housing, then we would build houses and make it easier for first home renters and buyers.

We'd sell sections on long-term sale and purchase agreements to first home buyers with low interest rates.

That is what we once did when we were one of the leading property owning democracies in the world.