Having property speculator pimps lecture Gen X+Y over budget choices in a minimum wage economy is akin to Judith Collins giving charm tips.
Claiming that it is frivolous sky bills and lattes that are preventing Gen X and Y and the poor from getting into home ownership smugly denies the generational context home ownership now occupies.
Property speculating boomers had cradle to grave subsidy of their lives, while Gen X and Y received user pays state support. Trying to save for a deposit in a  property market super heated beyond access by the boomer middle classes while paying for your own education, saving for retirement and gaining a minimum wage that doesn’t even cover a basic standard of living demands political action.
It won’t.
Property speculating boomers are the electoral majority. They vote in huge numbers to preserve the do nothing approach by all political parties to housing affordability and it’s not until 2023 when the electoral math will finally favour Gen Y and X that anything is going to seriously change.
By focusing on supply and not demand, the Government is propping up the Auckland bubble because it’s the only thing generating growth and that keeps the property speculating and voting boomers happy. The research the Government didn’t want to do looks like it will show substantial off shore speculation of Key is talking about a land tax, but the domestic speculation will be left untouched.
If you are a Gen X or Y, that pain you feel, that lack of job security, real wages, stake hold in society – that’s neoliberalism and that laughing you hear are property speculating boomers refusing to give up their illusionary wealth.
It won’t be until the electoral math changes in 2023Â that Gen X and Y can get their vengeance and when that opportunity comes, we should be as ruthless as they were.
I wish you wouldn’t tar all boomers with the same brush. My parents own one house which they plan to leave to their children. They have had good careers, worked hard and bought a few shares to supplement their super. There was no kiwisaver around in those days, so they did what they could. They wish their grandchildren had the luxuries of a free tertiary education and state advances loans that they were grateful for. Don’t portray them as evil monsters. Oh, and yes they vote Labour, although that hasn’t done them any good. It has mostly been Labour that took these things away.
I feel the same as a Boomer who has always provided for her offspring so they wouldn’t drown in debt. I was able to do this because I did not live beyond my means, made huge sacrifices in my personal life and did the unthinkable I stayed at home for my kids and supported their father’s career because he earned big money at great cost to the family if I wasn’t there to fill the gap left by his absence. In “retirement “we continue to work just as hard as we ever did but we work for ourselves and do not have expensive holidays or a lavish lifestyle. This idea of Key’s isn’t all bad . However it will be poorly executed as usual. No Right Turn has the lowdown on this. http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2016/04/for-land-tax.html
Ahem..It has mostly been NATIONAL that took these things away.
Of course the government, and the Reserve Bank, will do all to “avoid” a housing crash, as that would set off a downward spiral dragging the banks and the economy down, into deep recession or at least financial imbalance.
People borrowed heaps for the homes that many have bought, and with a crash they end up with more debt than equity, forcing many to sell, and banks to step in also.
It is stuff that causes great misery for those affected, and only those with little means, who the government has a dim view of anyway, they would perhaps have a chance to benefit.
But as the economy would suffer, there would be job losses, no growth in incomes and that would affect most.
So yes, it is unlikely that prices for homes will drop any time soon, and only more housing supply may bring a bearable, moderate correction, but that will not happen soon either, as we have far too few qualified builders and tradesmen and even a shortage in building supplies. This will hamper to construction that is planned here in Auckland, and in the meantime the “boom” in prices and speculation are bound to continue, especially if immigration continues as it has, and if offshore buyers also continue to be allowed to buy here.
It was criminal from the start, that the government allowed us to get into this very messy, un-affordable situation, we will pay the price for many years to come, and most will become renters, in their own land.
In responding to this question, I would answer: All of the above!
Auckland house prices have indeed been driven up by Chinese money and immigration. There’s no use denying that. It’s a horse that has bolted.
Auckland house prices have also been driven up by Council incompetence. Are you going to vote for more of the same with Goff?
Globally, property values are also booming because of record low interest rates. Nothing at all we can do about that.
At the same time there does appear to be a generation of spoilt brats turning into adults who need to learn to adapt. (Nothing new – I had exactly the same problem as a young adult in the UK in the 70’s) Don’t come whining to me about how life is unfair when you’re drinking $4 cups of coffee and own a $1000 cell phone! My recommendation to them is to move: Set up an internet business in a depressed rural town. Create jobs there. If the food is crap, invite a friend to open a restaurant. The future is YOURS!
PS: Hope you’re right about 2024 though – I’m treating it as investment advice 😉
“Don’t come whining to me about how life is unfair when you’re drinking $4 cups of coffee and own a $1000 cell phone!”
Old economy Steven…
have look at this does it remind you of anywhere ??????
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_ktN_h7-J4
a must watch !!!!!
“we should be as ruthless as they were”
Is it possible for Gen Y to twist the economy to suit their needs? The economy already privileges people in their working prime – that’s essentially what neoliberalism is (workfare). That’s what occurred in the 70s and 80s throughout the West. By the time 2020 rolls around social mobility will be so low that it won’t be worth getting out of bed in the morning.
Gen Y will face a whole different set of challenges and opportunities in the 2020s (compared to what boomers had in the 70s and 80s). India and China will be the worlds economic engines. The West might still hold cultural power, but it will continue to dissipate. Most Gen Y’s will flee this god forsaken shithole before 2020. That’s my plan anyway. Labour will probably still be compiling lists of Chinese sounding last names.
But judging by the strength of Young Labour today, the party won’t exist by then. Can NZ Labour find a Corbyn or a Bernie soon to engage with the under 45s? Not from what I can see. Death to us all.
Ditto some of the above replies.
I am a boomer (just). Started work in 1986, just as neoliberalism kicked in with a vengeance. I only got laid off once, but because of the huge pile of older, more experienced boomers ahead of me, I’ve always had to anticipate the prospect of being laid off sometime in the future, and ‘growing my career’ has often eluded me.
The household I helped build was built on interest rates of between 9 and 14% per annum.
Partly due to the effects of neoliberalism, I and my partner’s families were unable to provide significant help, so we’ve done it all with our own hands, from scratch.
We haven’t travelled, we haven’t splurged. We had to live within our means or get burned by credit.
We plan to help our Gen Y offspring, so the next gen. can have an easier start than we did.
Gen X & Y have it different, hard even, but not necessarily worse than many boomers.
2 years savings down on a Karori house in 1978
Ordinary jobs
No hard work, no privations
It doubled in value in 5 years
Wages doubled too
High interest rate was irrelevant
Free 50% equity, half a house of capital, for nothing
That’s what boomers were doing then
Inflation made us rich
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