Affordable housing

Nick Smith, already known and a greenie loon is fat becoming as unpopular as Len Brown in Auckland.

Why on earth John Key has made him the minister and the oracle of all things Auckland when he lives mostly in Wellington and partly in Nelson is beyond me.

But statements like this just makes us Aucklanders want to run him out of town on a rail.

Aucklanders need to get over their nimbyism and accept lower quality developments if they want affordable housing, says Housing Minister Nick Smith.

As residents in older suburbs grapple with possible changes under the draft Unitary Plan, the Government’s planned special housing areas threaten to override current planning rules designed to protect existing neighbourhoods.

A law change before Parliament would give more permissive consenting powers in the designated areas, to be agreed between the Government and Auckland Council under their new Housing Accord. Notification – allowing neighbours to object – would be more limited.

When first unveiled, it was assumed the designations would be on cheaper rural land in a bid to speed up home building. But Dr Smith says greenfield subdivisions earmarked for housing within the urban limits and in areas zoned for intensification could be declared special housing areas.

“Higher quality equates to high price. You end up with conditions requiring expensive sections and expensive homes.”

With comments like that it certainly looks like Len Brown has found a left-wing cabinet minister to push his agenda. God knows why he was rehabilitated into cabinet.

The only people moaning about affordable housing are broken arsed losers.

MARION VAN DIJK/FAIRFAX NZ via Stuff

If they can’t get affordable housing going in the middle of nowhere, how does the Green led Labour party stand a chance?

The Motueka couple who thought they were making headway with their fight to prove affordable housing options existed, will now pull down their illegal dwellings to avoid “being made criminals”.

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More jewels of wisdom espoused by Holly Walker and accordingly embraced by the Herald. Plenty of supporting comment by Twyford but did the Horrid actually think about contacting Nick Smith?

Handing state homes over to community providers may benefit corporate developers, the Green Party says.

Housing Minister Nick Smith has said he wants more social housing provided from within the community, rather than by the state.

Greens Housing spokeswoman Holly Walker said the community housing sector was an important part of solving the housing crisis.

But handing homes over to community organisations would risk benefiting corporate housing developers set up as pseudo-community providers.

“There is a real concern that if Nick Smith’s plan is fast-tracked the beneficiaries will be National’s developer mates, not the thousands of families in urgent need of affordable housing,” Ms Walker said.

“It’s important that the Government retains its responsibility for the wellbeing of low-incomes families and ensures that tenants in state, community, and private rental accommodation are all living in safe, secure, appropriate housing.

“Transferring properties to the community housing sector shouldn’t be seen as a chance to abdicate Government responsibility for the outcomes of those tenants.”  Read more »

NBR reports that the Property Council has slammed Len Brown’s development plans. Connal Townsend labels it as “absolutely brainless”:

Matthew Hooton has a very good column at NBR.

If Labour and Greens can decided that electricity is not at a “fair” price what is to stop them coming after your house next, and regulating the property market so house are sold at a “fair” price. After all they do both have “affordable housing” policies. It wouldn’t take much to institute a removal of real estate agents and have an agency that bought and sold house at a “fair” price. You just go in the queue for a house and the state looks after you.

It goes without saying that such a government would be exponentially further left than the Clark/Cullen government of the 2000s.  Further, as this week’s electricity policy launch reveals, both Labour and the Greens are politically committed to cutting electricity prices and ideologically determined to impose financial revenge on buyers of MRP shares.

Businesspeople may argue that that would drive down not just the value of “mum and dad” shareholdings in Contact, MRP, Meridian and Genesis but hit almost every KiwiSaver fund, along with the ACC and Superannuation funds.

Any rational person might then point out that any private-sector wealth destruction would be exceeded by the government itself, given its majority ownership of MRP, Meridian and Genesis and 100% ownership of Transpower.  Read more »

Len Brown and Labour have a dream for Auckland. They call it affordable housing, and they are dumping thousands of pamphlets around Auckland at the moment, paid for by the taxpayer, outlining Labour’s policy.

Len Brown’s unitary plan proposes teeny tiny, tacky apartments around bus corridors, but miraculously the area he resides in misses out on the intensification plans.

Meanwhile in China they are proving the concept of affordable housing quite well.

A 7-square-meter flat including a bedroom, bathroom, balcony and closet is displayed at a minimalist housing exhibition at Chongqing University Wednesday.  Read more »

Len Brown’s vision for Papakura? Is this affordable housing Labour style?

Images of Hong Kong ‘living cubicles’ that look just like Borg cubes.

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Labour launched their affordable housing policy to much fanfare and not much scrutiny earlier in the year. The useful idiots all cried out that this was salvation and then people started to look at the detail…the policy has been found wanting…

Meanwhile Len Brown is causing outrage with the draft annual plan that is has left and right alike outraged at his proposals for teeny tiny block of tacky apartments in certain quarters. All this while lives in a leafy gated community with plenty plus land around his house.

Ana Samways in her Sidewipe column highlights the farce that is Labour’s and now Len Brown’s affordable housing policy:

There is no such thing as affordable housing in Auckland: Radio Live’s Duncan Garner challenged Mayor Brown to show him Auckland’s affordable housing. This is what he came up with. The high Merchant Quarter apartment block in New Lynn and two grotty units.   Read more »

Maurice Williamson absolutely schools Labour and David Shearer on affordable housing:

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I was on The Huddle with Larry Williams and Josie Pagani last night

Our topic was:

• David Shearer gets real about what 300 thousand can buy in terms of a house in Auckland. Josie and I get stroppy. Listen after the break.

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