Is Christopher Luxon a liar or deluded?

Will Luxon resign if rents don’t stop rising? No! What a crock of crap. What happened when Student allowance went up by 50.00 per week? https://www.stuff.co.nz/a/nz-news/350211394/pm-christopher-luxon-argues-renters-will-be-grateful-interest-deductibility?lid=m8nx4u1zsz2r&utm_source=newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=two_minutes_of_stuffLandlords almost universally lifted their rents when this happened. This is not a bash the Landlord post. Currently you can get 6.5% interest on fixed term, with first mortgage security on low risk investments. So Lets say I bought a rental for 800,000 k with a 400,000 deposit. That 400 k could earn me 26000.00 gross or 500.00 per week. If I wanted a 6.5%cash return on a 800,000.00 dollar home (1000.00 per week) I would need to be getting about 65000.00 per year in rent or 1250.00. I would be paying 2,606 per month over 60 years for the mortgage or interest only 2200.00. It is not the job of a commercial landlord to subsidise housing. The responsibility for the provision of affordable, safe, healthy housing lies at the feet of society via the State, the Church, NGOs or Charitable organisations. We as a society can afford to do this, we cannot afford the consequences of not doing so. We have seen these consequences From The mid 1970’s on, the initial instigators of this were in fact Labour and then National doubled down. This will only end when those who are most affected by this actually use their electoral power and vote in a Government that will deal with this. The biggest problem with Labour’s last term was squandering its electoral mandate on issues that actually would not have addressed the prime roots of poverty in our society and that is the cost of housing. This is not about higher wages or benefits it is about lower rents and an ability to buy property at an affordable price. Here endeth the lesson.

Transience a form of neglect?

 

As a Statutory Social Worker one of the tasks I had to complete was to determine whether I believed a child or young person was in need of care and protection,

Howling At The Moon

I am so glad I don’t live like blanket man did, that is the extreme end of homelessness, I am part of the vision of the national Governments property owning democracy,

The Non Housing Crisis

In my last post I talked about an Australian company attempting to impose sweat shop type activities in New Zealand, conditions that would not be tolerated in Australia,

The missing link.

 No not Rodney Hyde although that sloping forehead of his perhaps …. no really, successive governments have missed one of the essential things that contribute to a healthy society.

We have seen many changes over the time that I have been cognisant of society, from the mid 70’s to be precise, there has been a common theme and that has been a lack of permanence and a growth in what I call the throw away society, interestingly enough it corresponds with the time that McDonalds opened its first store in New Zealand.  Whilst there are many areas involved in our throw away society it is something more substantial than electronic goods or plastic fantastic two dollar shop rubbish.  I want to discuss housing.