Posted by admin on September 1, 2014

It’s less red tape and more land that is needed to help Auckland’s over-inflated property market, not subsidies for first-time buyers.

Real estate company Harcourt’s CEO Hayden Duncan reacted to National’s proposed Kiwisaver Homestart grant, revealed last week by Prime Minister John Key. The package effectively increases the amount first-time buyers can obtain through their Kiwisaver contributions.

Mr Duncan said the proposal was a band-aid and that it did not deal with the root of the problem in Auckland – development costs and red tape.

“We have an unusual situation here where even our biggest and best developers are reluctant to do things because of the red tape challenges they face,” he said.

“Until they get rid of that we are going to be having this conversation again in four years time.”

Dr Oliver Hartwich, of the economic think tank New Zealand initiative agreed, adding “National’s announcement does nothing to remove the constraints and roadblocks to building more houses, such as tight land supply, high compliance costs and limited infrastructure.”