Real Estate Institute of NZ president Peter McDonald is reported to have said that in the main centres "there's a lot of growth. With [high] net migration, there's going to be a definite shortage of homes at some stage because we aren't building enough," The full article in the Sunday Star Times today reports on section sale prices dipping, but not in Auckland.
Further to our previous article - is it any wonder we're not building enough new homes when the Auckland City Council taxes each new dwelling project $25,000-$30,000? Actually, many Councils are taking what they think they can get away with. A Local Government Forum is complaining calling the contributions a "rort". But their article mainly refers to big developers. What about us? We wanted to purchase a rental property as a way of saving for our retirement. Well who wants to leave their well-earned savings in a badly-managed fund that charges fees that almost wipe any gain off? Let alone that some investment companies are not the safest place to have your savings at the moment. As for leaving it in a bank - similarly, the fees, minute amount of interest earned and taxes means your money is almost going backwards there. Land, like gold, is a finite resource and the REINZ forewarn we're going to have a shortage of housing in Auckland. Surely we can't lose if we buy or build homes to rent out?
We're wondering if we should have just bought an existing dwelling. But, that doesn't increase the number of dwellings available. Our longer term plan is to develop decent (stylish, eco-features) lower cost housing to support Kiwi home ownership at entry level (in the lower price bracket). We can understand the resentment towards the large developers and we can empathise with public support for wanting to sting them with these huge contributions - they build 'little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky-tacky' (as my father used to sing). Their developments are ugly, lacking in style and character; they shove heaps of people in to a small area - it's gross. So, yes. Let's stop them. (For instance - look at Stonefields - how tragic is that, but Dannemora, Botany, Albany - huge swathes of once-beautiful farm land is now covered in desert-coloured, tree-denuded beige-on-beige-boring sleeping boxes.)
We're not Fletchers! We can't negotiate our way out of paying the contribution.
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