Thursday, 20 May 2021, 3:09 pm
Well done to the Government on funding its housing
initiatives, but for most first-home buyers Budget 2021 will
make little difference, says one real estate
boss.
“It brings to life measures the Government has
already announced in recent months. However, it does little
to help young Kiwis pull together a deposit or secure a
mortgage – both of which are increasingly difficult,”
says Derryn Mayne, Owner of Century 21 New
Zealand.
Her comments follow Finance Minister Grant
Robertson confirming today that Budget 2021 will help
deliver more housing supply, with a strong focus on lifting
Maori homeownership rates announced.
“Homeownership
rates for Maori have always been much lower than the rest of
Scott Hammond/Stuff
Six new one-bedroom units are being built to replace two state homes from the 1950s in Blenheim’s Stratford St.
As the national housing crisis reaches a new crescendo, demand for state homes in Marlborough keeps rising. Can public housing keep up in a market this volatile? Jennifer Eder asks Kāinga Ora’s new regional director Julia Campbell about the future of state housing in Marlborough. Classic 1950s state homes on grassy quarter acres are slowly disappearing around Blenheim, and in their place handfuls of smaller, newer homes are taking shape. Subdividing up state home sections was the quickest and easiest way to build more homes in a hurry, Housing NZ said during a 2018 announcement of 13 new houses for Marlborough.
Loan-to-value ratios (LVRs) already allow borrowers to get loans on new builds with a smaller deposit than they would need for an existing property. For a new build, first-home buyers can usually have a deposit of 10 per cent while property investors are currently required to have a deposit of 20 per cent. In contrast, first-home buyers usually need a deposit of 20 per cent to buy an existing house and investors effectively need a 40 per cent deposit already, although that’s not official until May.
Opposition leader Judith Collins says Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has broken a promise by introducing a capital gains tax after the Labour Government announced a series of housing policy changes.
The median price for a home in Northland was $655,000, Curtis said. “In Auckland there is an even bigger gap with house price caps at $700,000 for a new build or $625,000 for an existing property,” she said, when the median house price was about $1.1 million. “It would be very hard in the current market to find a suitable property under the price cap, and even if you did the bank may not lend on it to the level needed for first home buyers,” Curtis said.
ROBERT KITCHIN/STUFF
National Party leader Judith Collins talks about the new housing policy and her leadership.
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