National have committed to keeping most of the density rules they agreed to with Labour, with the tweak of giving councils a little more flexibility around where people can build up to three storeys. Overall a great move, and one that will hopefully have a downwards pressure on house prices.
They have also indicated they plan to build more state houses, as well.
It really does though. We’ve seen it for years. New Zealand is wildly underinvested in productive assets and we have an eyewatering level of private household debt. This is because residential real estate is heavily used as a store of value and source of capital gain.
Expecting New Zealanders to stop hoarding housing stock is like expecting Indian housewives to stop buying up gold jewellery.
I’m writing this from a town where over a third of houses stand empty on census night while local families live in all kinds of shitty “gottages”. The demand and supply are both here.