KEY POINTS:
Housing Minister Maryan Street told delegates at the Labour Party Congress today details of how a proposed shared equity scheme may work, including capping capital gain home owners could get under it.
Ms Street was speaking at a workshop along with other ministers on a range of policies. She gave candidates advice on how to sell Labour's housing policy in the lead up to the election and combat National Party attacks.
"Housing affordability is an absolutely hot political topic and it's one that we should be grasping with both hands."
KiwiSaver was held up as a key plank to help first home buyers who could get a $10,000 government subsidy towards their deposits.
Other measures were Welcome Home Loans, shared equity, affordable housing developments and streamlining processes and standardising designs for building plus more state houses.
"The thing about housing is it's a heartland issue for Labour... This is about families, it's about the Kiwi dream, we're not giving up on the Kiwi dream of home ownership."
Ms Street said a shared equity scheme could see the Government provide Crown or Housing Corporation land, with the buyer paying only for the house.
Later she told NZPA the idea was "what we are looking at for the shared equity proposal, it hasn't been fully announced yet".
If that option was chosen, contracts would include clauses to prevent house owners moving their homes on to other land.
Whatever type of government shared equity scheme people signed up to would meant they agreed to limited capital gain, possibly set at about 20 per cent.
"We can't have affordable houses being built this year and in two years time they're sold on and they become unaffordable, so we are in this for the long haul."
During the workshop, Ms Street told delegates how to tackle National attacks.
She said National's promise to re-invest in housing stock was dubious.
Delegates were urged to hit back at National backing for expansion of metropolitan urban limits changes - "what that means for us is urban sprawl and unsustainable communities pushing affordable housing out to the margins of cities where there's no infrastructure".
The Government was cutting red tape with a recently announced policy but defended the Resource Management Act as key to protecting the environment.
Ms Street also talked about needing to clean up sub-standard boarding houses in Auckland.
"What we need to do is ensure these people are in touch with the government agencies and the not for profit sector who can offer them support that they are entitled to."
- NZPA
