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Dr Oliver Hartwich on Radio NZ: Housing report calls for tolls, less red tape.
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Wellington (17 June 2015): The Productivity Commission’s latest report on how overly tight land supply feeds the housing affordability crisis is a pressing reminder of why the planning system and local government funding arrangements need reform, according to The New Zealand Initiative. The draft report, Using Land for Housing, notes that while New Zealand has one of the fastest population growth rates in the OECD, the supply of land for housing has not kept pace. Read more
Wellington (10 June 2015): The OECD’s recent report on New Zealand has highlighted the urgent need to untangle the Resource Management Act (RMA), which has snared the housing marketing in a spiral of ever-rising prices, according to The New Zealand Initiative. The public policy think tank said the findings of the bi-annual report resonated with much of its own research, particularly where zoning regulations have constrained the supply of new houses and pushed up prices. Read more
Serial entrepreneur and visionary Elon Musk last week introduced the first truly disruptive technology in the domestic electricity markets since, well, the lightbulb. He unveiled the Powerwall, which is a simple idea: use a lithium-ion battery to store energy when electricity is cheap and then use the stored power when prices are high. Read more
With two-fifths of the country caught in the grips of it, and the rest watching with a mix of awe, jealousy and sheer horror, it is easy to forget that Auckland’s housing market is more than an exciting exhibition. Figures like those released by Barfoot & Thompson this week do little to dispel the perception that housing in the country’s biggest city is anything but a fantastic spectacle, with March sales setting new records across a range of measures. Read more
Your property rights count for very little under the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA), yet they count for a great deal under New Zealand’s Public Works Acts (PWA) that date back to the 19th century. If the government dictates the future use of your land under the PWA ,you are entitled to compensation but not if it does so under the RMA. Read more
Wellington (23 March 2015): Central government needs to fulfil its long-neglected Resource Management Act obligations if it wants to boost mining activity and free communities from the stifling regulations that are choking off economic development in the rural regions. That is the main finding of From Red Tape to Green Gold, the second report in a two-part series by public policy think tank The New Zealand Initiative, which examines how regulation has prevented almost any form of mineral development in a country that ranks among the richest in the world on measures of resource endowment. Read more
In just over a week’s time we will find out whether all the work that Environment Minister Nick Smith and his team have put into the latest round of Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms will ever see the light of day. That is when voters in Northland will decide whether to let the National Party maintain its effective majority in Parliament or opt for a bit of something different in the form of Winston Peters and New Zealand First. Read more
When Harvard economist Ed Glaeser delivered a public lecture on urban economics in Christchurch in 2013, hosted by Canterbury’s Department of Economics and Finance, he was asked whether Christchurch would really recover. The question wasn’t crazy. Read more
The recent announcements by Minister for the Environment Nick Smith that the Resource Management Act (RMA) is set to undergo a major overhaul is welcome news, representing the first meaningful policy change aimed at tackling the housing affordability crisis gripping New Zealand’s biggest cities. Although the detail on the changes has yet to be seen, the direction is promising as the RMA has long served as grit in the gears of the housing market, restricting sub-divisions, slowing the build rate, entrenching NIMBYism, while allowing fast growing councils to use it as an excuse to stall development and growth planning. Read more