Thursday, November 29, 2012

Economic madness in housing policy

The economic damage caused by these crazy policies is what needs to be hammered home: HughP has been very focussed on the 'broken-record' approach and it is gradually seeping through. Perhaps. Let's tabulate the said damage: - Median multiples in perma-unaffordable zone - Acquiescence in a materials supply cartel - Lack of nation-wide type approvals (for e.g. factory-built dwellings) - consents are Still a local-authority issue. Welcome to the ineptocracy! - Complete absence of time-money rules in the entire consents etc processes including the RMA. Quick fix would be to adopt current IRD rules - just try missing a tax payment and see what happens! - Disenfranchisement and disengagement of young citizens shut out of the housing market - Consultants, lawyers, engineers, insurers all feasting on the corpse of what passes for the development industry - 100% pure deadweight - Regulation of everything that is an input to the industry - if only the synthetic-cannabis rules could apply (use it until sufficient numbers of addled users clog up the A&E's of the nation, then stroke chin and say ' why, something's Gotter be Done) - Granting untaxed capital windfalls to landowners by continuing to squiggle on maps - Acquiescing on land-banking - Transmission of this economic malaise (as it applies to new-house pricing) throughout the housing market, as existing-home sellers who wish to buy new at roughly the same level of amenity, need to sell at near the same price (and trouser the CG, mais naturellement, if they play it right) Play this record at Every Opportunity, and don't forget that it Cannot be fixed by voting in a new lot of faces at either national or local government levels. It's a classic cluster-f**k. This stuff is systemic......

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