New Zealand stokes the flames of the “housing crisis”

From RNZ:

The govermnent… has unveiled its long-awaited plan to tilt the balance towards first-time buyers and to turn down the heat in the market. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the plan is a package of both urgent and long-term measures to relieve pressure.

“The housing crisis is a problem decades in the making that will take time to turn around, but these measures will make a difference. There is no silver bullet, but combined all of these measures will start to make a difference,” she said.

From 1 April, the income cap to access First Home Grants and Loans will be lifted from $85,000 to $95,000 for single buyers, and from $130,000 to $150,000 for two or more buyers.

“We want our first-home buyers to be able to get into the market and so much of what we’re doing today is about them,” Ardern said. Rampant growth has been driven by speculators in the market, she said. Regional price caps for accessing support have also lifted.

It’s the same old, same old. The Silver Bullet (or at least, the silver-est bullet) is introducing LVT and reducing taxes on output and employment. As a second best, adopt Georgism Lite which the UK had until the 1980s (more social housing; rent controls and tenant protection; capping homebuyer mortgages at low salary multiples etc), which proveably works. Giving people more money in the face of inelastic supply will just push up prices even more, and they must know that.