Helping Kiwis on to property ladder

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Housing  for “Kiwis” and health services are two of our primary problems as politicians seek our votes to become part of the next government. 
By now our political parties should be unequivocally informing us where they stand when it comes to regulating our property markets, where overseas buyers are concerned.
The most recent statistics show there has been a slowdown on purchases by overseas interests under the Labour Government, but they still number in their hundreds.
The effect of this is highly inflationary, and well-financed overseas buyers can “cherry-pick” our market, to the detriment of local  buyers.
So how are the  parties shaping up on this?
Labour is waffling and not saying what it will do because it is waiting for National to release its policy. Act seems all for the overseas buyers to ravage our auctions. 
Even now, NZ First is the only party giving an unequivocal  “No!” to any overseas buyers. So once again, we see the need to party vote Winston’s lot into Parliament again. There is little doubt that the handbrake effect will be needed again — this time more than ever.
 
Dennis Pennefather