Thursday, September 21, 2017

Prefab impediments

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The hurdles for prefab builds include: The need for a 10-year build guarantee (IIRC) by the prefabber, with associated insurance and bac...
Wednesday, September 20, 2017

That 'Free market' in housing

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I think it's more likely though that the market will be left to its own devices Wishful thinking - it's never been a free market...
Monday, September 18, 2017

New Zealand - a chain of systempunkts

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The sad fact is that NZ, as a long, thin, and increasingly poor country, is just chocka with what John Robb terms 'systempunkts' - ...
Thursday, August 10, 2017

Living Wage madness and the BOM explosion

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The LW proposal, applied to indirect staff, runs headlong into the bill-of-materials-explosion issue.  An illustration: The policy:  ev...
Monday, August 07, 2017

Getting stuff Built

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David Hargreaves writes : If you can't make builders put a spade in the ground, and the bankers give them the money, it ain't going...
Thursday, July 27, 2017

GST - the itch to impose differential rates of tax

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The common taters who itch to Fiddle with GST need a reality check. Changing the overall rate is something of a mission, but do-able: the ch...
Sunday, June 25, 2017

More of the same old building techniques for small dwellings ain't gonna deliver volume or quality...

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So, so many common taters are expecting More of the Same when it comes to building techniques. Armies of self-employed tradies required, hop...
Thursday, June 22, 2017

Welcome Home loans as a Universal Price Floor signal mechanism

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The Interest article , as a sidebar, exposes an Interesting aspect of the housing market - the Welcome Home loans scheme. This was impleme...
Thursday, June 01, 2017

Why house prices took off 2002-3

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The graph of house affordability wonderfully clearly illustrates the way in which Ms Market end-runs stupid politicians. The immediate c...

Awkland Social Housing - bring in the Robots....

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What would help buildings affordability (land prices aside, because they are a direct result of planning zoneration and strangulation over ...
Thursday, November 17, 2016

Kaikoura rail prospects

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The rail from Parnassus through to Kaikoura was the very last (because the toughest) main rail link to be completed.  In 1940 ish (see http:...
Friday, October 07, 2016

Schadenfreude over Energiewende

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Sacrificed Landscapes – How the Energiewende Is Destroying our Landscapes.   Book (in German, initially) soon to be published:  author is G...
Monday, June 20, 2016

Building lotsa Houses Fast

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There's a win-win-win proposition possible. I've harped on aboot this for so many years that the words just write themselves. And t...
Thursday, June 02, 2016

Why RBNZ can't solve the Auckland Housing Bubble

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Common taters who pooh-pooh the effect of Supply are ignoring the Christchurch experience. There, a CERA-led Land Use Recovery Plan got a...
Monday, May 23, 2016

Why housing supply is strangled

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Common taters seem to assume that it's purely a Gubmint issue - ban furriners, build anything anywhere, tax the living daylights outta ...
Friday, May 20, 2016

Auckland Under Fire

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Henny Pulse, Deputy Squawker for the Associated Cluckfusters Collective, is all a’flutter about the challenges recently made to the proposed...
Thursday, March 31, 2016

Christchurch Old CBD Precincts' fate

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Press article http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/78261803/confidence-slump-among-christchurch-landlords refers. The Precincts idea has crashe...
Monday, February 01, 2016

NZika virus

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A new variation of a very old virus has hit Auckland. It is being dubbed the NZika. It manifests by a curious shrinking, or indeed complet...
Thursday, November 19, 2015

Why it is nigh impossible to put up cheap accommodation

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Roelof asks "Why can't Salvation Army be allowed to build cheap roofs over peoples heads.... Why can't we have more garages/sh...
Monday, September 28, 2015

Why Central Christchurch is still tumbleweeds

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The Press appears to be mystified as to why this should be so.  The reasons for this schemozzle are simple and unpalatable. 1 - The bur...