Over-extended first-home buyers will be vulnerable in the event of a market crash. Photo / Supplied
Increases in house prices are driven by scarcity. The current dramatic increase seems to be primarily driven by highly geared speculators, funded by historically low mortgage interest rates.
We can be confident a solution will be found for Covid-19 within 12 months. It is likely mortgage rates will
climb as economic conditions stabilise. We can also be sure many recently returned New Zealanders will head back overseas for work and other opportunities and the buying frenzy will subside. Market conditions will ease and mortgage rates will rise. Following a super-heated property market, these are the ingredients for a crash and, when it comes, it is too late to sell as investors try to bail out and prices fall off a cliff. Speculators will end up with negative equity. Tough. Of more concern are first-home buyers who have taken on huge mortgages who will also end up with negative equity and their hard-saved deposits evaporated.
In the absence of a capital gains tax, the Reserve Bank must bring back a sensible and selective LVR regime with urgency before the economy is further distorted, and individuals suffer more, from the consequences of unconstrained property speculation.
D Grinlinton, St Heliers.
So the PM has ruled out providing any relief for beneficiaries before Christmas. Pity the poorest children.
For 14 years, the Child Poverty Action Group has argued the simplest, most cost-effective policy to reduce child poverty is to extend the deceptively named IWTC (In Work Tax Credit) to all low-income families worth $72.50/week.
Grant Robertson and Jacinda Ardern should be asked why they have failed to act on this disgraceful policy, which denies beneficiaries this significant and essential monetary support for their children.
It would cost $500 million and enable at least that $72.50 to be paid to their parents/caregivers and recognise the valuable work of raising the next generation.
Janfrie Wakim, Epsom.
In New Zealand, we are being forced to not use cheques, in shops with payWave the payment automatically goes to the credit card as against the cheaper Eftpos card, this costs retailers more. Also payWave costs the retailer more each month, so there is double-dipping by the banks.
In Australia the payWave does not cost extra. In China the transaction is done by phone and QR code, like we use for Covid.
It's time that the banks were restricted to their purpose and let the Government handle transactions in the same way that they print and supply cash.
Neville Cameron, Coromandel.
Monday's issue (NZ Herald, November 9) featured two important stories that were at cross-purposes.
In the first, Simon Collins and Kirsty Wynn trawled through some chewy statistics to suggest that the post-Covid employment situation may be better than many commentators fear because the demand for skilled workers cannot be met through immigration.
In the second, Liam Dann (egged-on by the chief executive of Kiwi Expats Association) touted the "brain gain" looming from half a million members of the Kiwi diaspora wanting to come home in the next two years because of our record in dealing with the pandemic.
True, those expats are not classified as immigrants but, if they do return, they will still compete for jobs (as well as, sigh, housing).
The Herald's broadmindedness may be an illustration of F. Scott Fitzgerald's dictum that "the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function".
Michael Goldsmith, Hamilton.
Figures published (NZ Herald, November 9) suggest that more than a third of returning New Zealanders plan to live in Auckland. Surely the conditions of their return should be to go anywhere other than Auckland?
Even better is to establish entirely new cities in regions that could do with population growth. This would prevent the overloading infrastructures of the present towns and cities, such as is happening in Auckland.
As for work, people arriving in new places make additional work by their very presence.
Clark James, New Lynn.
If Auckland ratepayers are providing Nick Hill with $506,000 a year as head of the somewhat bizarrely named Auckland Unlimited, then the least we can expect is reasonable competence.
Hill has come out in strong support of the trust-owned Eden Park as Auckland's sole rectangular stadium.
I have no problem with that but when he says in response to the legitimate question about the future of council owned Mt Smart and North Harbour facilities, he says: "I don't know what the future is for them. I haven't gone into that."
Surely we are entitled to expect he should have diligently examined all facilities in Auckland, particularly council-owned facilities before making such an important decision.
It seems this is yet another case of a "council-controlled" organisation failing to demonstrate due responsibility to Auckland City and those who end up paying for them?
Rod Lyons, Muriwai.
David Seymour complains that courgettes are rotting on the ground because the grower cannot import labour to pick them (NZ Herald, November 10).
Also the need to have special skills to pick them is beyond belief.
This grower is in Northland, where unemployment is always higher than average.
Instead of moaning about importing staff, which is not going to change, he should look at his business model. To start with he needs to get a social responsibility and employ local people. Yes, he will need to train them as he does with his imported people.
The kiwifruit industry had the same concerns but managed to pick and export a record crop.
If they are prepared to let fruit and veg rot, they should not be in business because they clearly can't be flexible. Sad for them and the unemployed.
Gordon Walker, Piopio.
There is a lot of inflammatory rhetoric around Donald Trump's refusal to concede the 2020 election. Apparently, this action is a threat to democracy according to some Democrats, while some journalists suggest that Trump is a sore loser. What I find interesting is the refusal to allow the possibility that voter fraud has taken place. Voter fraud has taken place in previous elections. For this reason I do not know why journalists rush to judgment saying there is no evidence of fraud this time and we should all just move on. The allegations should be investigated. If the Democrats have nothing to hide then they have nothing to fear.
This is not the first time that a candidate has made a legal challenge after an election. Democrat candidate Al Gore did so in 2000. Was he also a sore loser and a threat to democracy? Hillary Clinton is still maintaining that the 2016 election was "stolen" from her. Strangely no one appears to consider Hillary a "sore loser".
Justine Ashton, Raumati South.
It seems to have escaped the attention of [proponents of] the proposed harbour tunnel that there is no railway on the North Shore. No tracks, no stations, no rail infrastructure.
Why do the experts propose a rail tunnel under the harbour?
If the tunnel cost $5 billion the North Shore rail infrastructure will cost $50 billion - a total waste of money and exposes Auckland as being managed by fools.
Sydney with a population of five million built a road tunnel for zero. A Japanese contractor built the tunnel in exchange for receiving the tolls. All smoothly done and an excellent road tunnel.
Perhaps Auckland Transport can paddle their waka over to Sydney and see how to build a sensible tunnel?
Erik Marjo, Milford.
On Trump
Seventy million Republicans held on to Republican philosophy and values, although enough saw the truth to allow Joe Biden a chance to unite a divided country. Elizabeth A Goldsworthy, Hillsborough.
Is he as bad a loser on the golf course as in the election? He's only seen playing alone - perhaps that gives the answer. Iris Jillett, Whakatāne.
The Democrats owe a debt of gratitude to Trump for letting them take back the presidency after only a single term. Bob Pearson, Totara Vale.
On Biden
New Zealand needs to welcome the advent of a more responsible, constructive leadership from the US, but encourage Joe Biden to make it a co-operative, rather then a competitive leadership. The days of American exceptionalism need to be laid aside. Gray Southon, Tauranga.
On tax
We are surely one of the "strange" nations where the average wage or total income of around $74k is taxed at the top rate and yet reject National's intended correction. Kenneth Lees, Whangārei
On genocide
The UN referred to the persecution of the Rohingya Muslims as "ethnic cleansing". I believe "cleansing" has a positive and beneficial connotation in most contexts and should not be used to mitigate the atrocities of religious and cultural persecution. Alison O'Sullivan, Ponsonby.
On Armistice
World War I ended on November 11, 1918 at 11am. If you choose to pause for a minute at 11am on the 11th to remember the men who fell in that conflict, please also spare a thought for the millions of horses that also died. David H. Fisher, Howick.
On Taskmaster
In Karl Puschmann's piece on TVNZ's Taskmaster (October 30), he politely stated that there are "some good gags and it's great to see our comedians on screen". The truth is that this is the most unfunny game show I have ever seen, and I won't be wasting any more of my time watching it. Neil Groves, Glen Innes.
Source of the 'really unpleasant' noise has been identified, but a fix is some time away.