The country's housing market has been a thorn in the government's side as various policy prescriptions to address years of under-supply take a while to ease the imbalance.
Other initiatives announced today included a four-year $4.9 million boost to implement the National Policy Statement on Urban Development Capacity, which is seen as a key step in removing resource consenting obstacles for rapid house construction.
The Crown expects to spend $2.7 billion on housing over the next four years, which includes part of the 10-year house building programme.
The New Zealand Property Council gave a the 2017 Budget a 7 out of 10 on its scorecard.
"After years of underinvestment, we are particularly pleased to see the Government attempting to beef up their funding and put in place some solid foundations for future growth," chief executive Connal Townsend said.
Property Institute of New Zealand Chief Executive Ashley Church was disappointed and surprised that the Government has not used the Budget to alleviate the Auckland housing shortage, saying it risks giving the impression it 'either doesn't understand the extent of the problem, or simply doesn't care'.
The Institute has been calling for Government to act, urgently, on housing affordability for first home buyers and on the speed at which new homes are being built or purchased by private sector buyers. However, Mr Church said that neither of these have been addressed in the Budget.
"Auckland needs 40,000 new homes, right now - and the best way to achieve this at least cost to the taxpayer is to encourage private buyers to start building rather than buying existing homes - so we had hoped that the budget would contain a suite of measures to incentivise people to do this. But there's nothing even remotely targeted to this purpose, and the problem is no closer to being resolved today than it was yesterday".
"We were also hoping to see further measures designed to alleviate the pressure on first home buyers. Perhaps a new Government Equity Program designed to assist with the deposit or suspensory loans in the early stages of a mortgage which could be repaid further down the track. But there's absolutely nothing in the budget to achieve this either".
"Clearly, the Government is supremely confident that they already have the housing crisis nailed and that no further initiatives are necessary. Unfortunately, I don't share that confidence and they're taking an awfully big gamble with the lives of a lot of people in the hope that they're right".
Property Institute of New Zealand Chief Executive Ashley Church was disappointed and surprised that the Government has not used the Budget to alleviate the Auckland housing shortage, saying it risks giving the impression it 'either doesn't understand the extent of the problem, or simply doesn't care'.
The Institute has been calling for Government to act, urgently, on housing affordability for first home buyers and on the speed at which new homes are being built or purchased by private sector buyers. However, Mr Church said that neither of these have been addressed in the Budget.
"Auckland needs 40,000 new homes, right now - and the best way to achieve this at least cost to the taxpayer is to encourage private buyers to start building rather than buying existing homes - so we had hoped that the budget would contain a suite of measures to incentivise people to do this. But there's nothing even remotely targeted to this purpose, and the problem is no closer to being resolved today than it was yesterday".
"We were also hoping to see further measures designed to alleviate the pressure on first home buyers. Perhaps a new Government Equity Program designed to assist with the deposit or suspensory loans in the early stages of a mortgage which could be repaid further down the track. But there's absolutely nothing in the budget to achieve this either".
"Clearly, the Government is supremely confident that they already have the housing crisis nailed and that no further initiatives are necessary. Unfortunately, I don't share that confidence and they're taking an awfully big gamble with the lives of a lot of people in the hope that they're right".
- With Businessdesk
