The political year has begun and if there's one thing all parties can agree on, it's that we have a "housing crisis" on our hands.
But is it a crisis in the sense that high-earning professionals can't get their platinum ring-laden fingers on a four-bedroom, recently renovated grammar zone villa for under $1.5 million? Or that university graduates feel put out about not being able to afford something roomy in Pt Chev or Westmere? Or, as our political leaders seem to think, there are thousands of working poor just waiting for the chance at a two-bedroom shoebox in Papakura?
The exact shape and scope of this problem remains unclear to many and yet solutions abound. Labour leader David Shearer, doing his best Dilbert impression, has outlined a frankly fantastical scheme to build just over 192 new homes a week - something like 27 a day - from the moment he takes office. Shearer, who once spoke to a beneficiary on a roof and so knows a little something about housing for the poor, has of course had to modify his original bombast: the houses will be small, outlying and probably a fraction more than the promised $300,000 norm in most cases. Which sounds like many of the houses already going for a song in fringe areas.
Ten thousand more like these, built at warp speed - once Shearer has solved the manpower crisis in the construction industry, of course; a massive korero with everyone even tangentially involved in building houses later in the year will provide the road map towards this happy confluence of jobs, homes and energy efficiency which will transform the economy.
