Housing ignorance

Despite every government on the planet failing in their every attempt to provide quality low-cost housing and thereby stave off the various housing crises they've created (here for example is a particularly attractive housing complex that the East German government once created as 'model housing'), Tweedledumb housing minister Maryan Street is still empowered by the idea of Nanny State: Landlord!  She's just announced she plans to sell off some of the bigger ticket homes 'owned' by the state, not so she can get Big Government the hell out of the tenancy business, but so government can buy some cheaper ones with the windfall.  "We expect to buy two or more state houses for the value of one," she said, "and buy them in areas where the need is greatest." Ms Street is clearly unaware of the effect of adding the aggregate figure of $12 million to the price of housing "in areas where the need is greatest."

Meanwhile Tweedledee housing spokesman Phil Heatley says "I don't know what Labour are going to do [well, why not read their press releases, Phil, that's supposed to be your job], but National would be reinvesting such massive sale proceeds straight back into the housing stock."

Yes, way to decrease housing costs, dumbarse.  Tweedledumb, and Tweedledumber -- and some people think the Blue Team are somehow the answer. Sheesh.

Just for the benefit of these two brainndead fruit-loops, the only way to seriously decrease the cost of new housing  is to seriously decrease the costs that new house-builders face in buying land and building houses -- damned obvious you would have thought -- which means decreasing the exploding regulatory burden upon them -- which means at minimum sacking the planners, burning their district plans, and taking the power away from councils to zone and levy and  regulate.  I doubt that either of the two Tweedledumbarses would countenance anything like that -- instead they'll just sit tight and hope a recession does the job of lowering the price of housing, while both blowing smoke out their arse.

Here's the sort of smoke and mirrors I mean: forcing developers to build low-cost houses on high-cost land (further raising costs for anyone brave enough to contemplate new development), which Maryan is continuing to promote despite the scheme's obvious destructiveness; and  then there's the vaunted "Welcome Home" home buying scheme.  This last is a 100% tax-payer funded loan for houses up to $200,000 for people who banks have decided are too risky for a real mortgage.  How many pontifications have there been regarding the stupidity of offering 100% finance to people who can't afford it?  Have any NZ politicians been listening?

No matter, Labour obviously figure the target market for this fatuous fiduciary scam -- ie, core Labour voters too ignorant to have understood the reasons for the collapse of the American mortgage market -- will like the idea of someone doing something (anything!) however fatuous, which is why Labour are now running taxpaid prime-time TV ads to trumpet themselves and this bullshit while taking an end run around the Electoral Finance Act.  So they're not just inept, but corrupt as well.