Restoring housing affordability

This cost of living problem has a huge impact on the ‘average Kiwi’, says the New Zealand Initiative in its Prescription for Prosperity document it will give to an incoming Government after the October election.

The Initiative says the country stands at a precipice. Persistent inflation, a cost-of-living crisis unaffordable housing, a ballooning public service, students leaving school system with declining literacy and numeracy, Waiting lists in the public health system expanding, the domestic crime wave sweeping across the country are increasingly polarising voters and threatening social cohesion.

Unaffordable housing hits the poorest hardest – it is a cause of poverty, the independent public policy think tank, supported by the chief executives of major New Zealand businesses, says. It limits labour mobility. And it creates social division by splitting society into property owners and those permanently locked out of the market.

The housing affordability crisis is not a new problem. When the Initiative was formed in 2012, the housing crisis was the topic du jour. After 11 years, it has only become worse.