After denying foreign investors were a problem inflating  property prices, National set up a register.
After denying any new capital gains tax was needed, National invent one.
After saying there would be no new taxes, all of a sudden John Key is now talking about a land tax???
Why?
The Government are about to release their register on overseas investors speculating in our property market and to get ahead of some figures which will be very embarrassing for the Government Key is now talking a land tax aimed at those foreign investors.
For Key to be suggesting a land tax suggests that the reality of foreigners speculating in our property market must be far larger than National have pretended.
The problem for National is that they don’t want to solve the property bubble, it’s the only thing creating fake growth numbers and keeping the boomer speculators politically happy, so rather than solve the affordability crisis with a tax that would punish all speculators, National will punish the foreign speculators who don’t bite.
Meanwhile the property speculator boomers laugh and the rich lock Gen X, Y, millennials and the poor out of ever owning a home in their own country.
Listening to RNZ at the moment (8.15 am) and Guyon Espiner has a man on saying a land tax on everyone could be considered by NatzKEY! WTF? Rates are a land tax for God’s sake, as is rent!
Sounding more like a poll tax to me! Land tax, poll tax on Kiwis must be challenged!
Tax the greedy foreign investors, who are buying up property, taking the profits with them offshore! Leave Kiwis out of it.
No doubt the interview will be posted soon on the RNZ site.
Any of those Foreign investors need taxing 50% who are deliberately leaving those house empty while they “property bank” those homes for pure speculation.
They are not buying those homes for living spaces for people.
So we need to tax the hell out of them now and rid our country of these maggots.????
Tax them 50% more with each additional purchase.
The way I have heard it described,it would tax you for simply owning a house, rather than a tax more aimed at speculators. another set of rates to pay! Cant see it helping families who own and live on one house, you have to live somewhere.
It’s supposed to replace the income and sales taxes that we currently have. Unfortunately, people seem to be forgetting that.
Martyn, I have been reading through a couple of Liam Dann’s commentaries in the Herald on line about the housing crisis in Auckland. He says in both of them that bringing in a Capital Gains Tax is political suicide for both sides of the house. Didn’t the government in the UK during the last war become a coalition of both sides and work together because of the state of the disaster?
Why cannot the entire house see where this is a huge problem for the country especially in Auckland where owning your own home for Kiwi born citizens will cease to exist and for the betterment of the country join together and all agree to bring in some unpleasant legislation which would stall and correct this huge imbalance in housing prices. This way no political party would be punished at the ballet box as they would all be agreeing together. At least this way no one party will be punished at the ballet box as we the electorate wouldn’t be able to punish any one party for the decision.
This situation has become almost a disaster category for the social cohesion of Auckland which contributes a lot of the tax take for the country so surely the Parliament are mature enough to see what could be done if just for this particular problem they all joined forces to get some legislation in place that would make a difference.
Is this too simple or do we need a Third World War to get parties to have the political will to get off their backsides and get some bottle and collude (for the want of a better word) together to see some action done.
there is no economy in NZ, just a taxpayer funded arrangement
So in other words you are saying we need an across the board land tax…I’d be happy with that ….so long as in tandem with that there is a general ( and realistic ) wage round increase for low wage workers and and at the same time an inquiry into John Keys shares in the Reserve Bank of America and just where those dividends are sent…
Also why be squeamish?
Why not have one rule for foreigners who want to speculate and another rule for people who ACTUALLY LIVE HERE?
Other country’s do and don’t even bat an eyelid – take China for instance,… with whom we have a FREE TRADE AGREEMENT……
Anyone with even half a brain in Auckland knows what’s been going on for a long time now.
N.Z is a low wage country with some of the highest house prices in the world.
1+1 does not equal 3.
Born and bred Aucklanders are being told you can’t live here anymore.
Get out ! And make way for predominantly the Chinese and The Indians.
It’s a form of ethnic cleansing.
The new N.Z is going to get ugly.
That’s wreckless Bill and Johns aspirational vision; “be prepared to get ugly”!
As a leftist I like the idea of property taxes. It’s a shame that Labour will once again let Key implement a policy on this, and then take the credit for the solution.
We all know that Key’s solution will be watered down and ineffective, but it will be well received by most of the electorate and it will make Labour look silly again.
So what is Labour’s solution to housing? And more importantly, what is Labour’s ideology?
Until Labour swings to the left and back to their roots, Key will keep making them look clueless. Labour messed up the UBI by ‘floating the idea’. It was a chance to stake a position, but they’ve now blown it.
Here’s some solutions:
A stronger CGT from Labour.
A strong financial transactions tax.
A social housing scheme similar to what we had in after WWII (say 10,000 homes per year).
A UBI of $250 per week and that does not mean ending all other forms of welfare!
A universal child benefit.
Restructure universities to end the competitive system and fund the Arts again – end STEM barbarism.
Higher taxes for the higher earners – up to 45% to bring us in line with the right wing governments in Aust and UK.
A policy to reduce personal debt especially for those with student loans (write-off after 3 years of working in NZ).
Ending Nixon’s drug war once and for all.
Corporate tax.
A free universal health system.
Changing immigration laws so we let more in, but stop rich people from buying residency.
A government owned supermarket that focuses on supporting NZ’s agricultural producers.
Assist dairy farmers out of their destructive industry and into other forms of farming / agriculture.
A new employment act.
Tie the minimum wage to a maximum wage.
Renationalise Spark and rail.
End the SOE model.
Massive investment into job schemes into a green economy and transport (specifically rail and cycle infrastructure in the cities).
This is basic shit. If Labour need a policy writer I’ll do it for free!
Key is only now “entertaining” the thought of a land tax, as he must have got some hint of information that there is indeed more than sufficient evidence of overseas buyers buying up residential property in New Zealand. It may become embarrassingly obvious, so he is preparing us for the possible “surprise” that the statistics gathered by the IRD may indeed reveal some significant interest by Chinese, Singaporean, British and other offshore buyers of New Zealand real estate.
I doubt though that a land tax only on foreigners may wash, as that may be seen as discriminatory, and someone may challenge such a tax in the courts. I am not sure where the China – New Zealand FTA stands on this, but here is one legal opinion:
https://www.chapmantripp.com/publications/Documents/nzlj_2009_4_kal.pdf
Then there is a question about how some investors may circumvent any problems by using local New Zealand trusts to own and administer investment in property here. As it seems so easy to set up trusts here, and as even many of our politicians use such trusts that hide a lot of wealth, there may be ways around a land tax.
I am sure these are things the opposition will further investigate.
It shows though, yet again, how Key is like a chameleon, which changes its spots and colours as it suits the present environment. He may have ranted against such tax introductions and increases during elections and previous terms, he may have said this that and the other, but when it seems to be necessary and convenient, he swiftly does flip flops and does it in a manner that simply stun the many useless media members, who may ask the odd question, but in the end simply shrug their shoulders and accept his “new position”.
As most in public will show only moderate interest, as only first home buyers are really seriously affected by the present house price explosion in Auckland, Key is likely to get away with all this, as being “pragmatic”.
So he will take any breeze of wind again out of the sails of the opposition, denying them yet another opportunity to take advantage of the government’s failings in containing the home investment speculation.
And if a land tax is only going to hit non New Zealanders, then this still leaves local investors and speculators to take over the opportunity and continue their buying and portfolio building.
I am sure they will not hit permanent residents with such a tax, and this will also allow many interested in buying homes here, to apply for residence, using the points system and generally still somewhat liberal immigration system, to simply “naturalise” their status and then keep buying stuff. As the buyers will have the money to do it, that alone may qualify them for permanent residence, under the “business and investor category”, I suppose.
We will see little change, after perhaps an initial drop in off-shore buying, it is perhaps all more intended for the public, the media and potential voters to feel “assured” something is being done, Key style that is, as little as necessary, as much as may look like “action”.
The only thing that can save us from a kiwi short is a living wage
not even a living wage can stop the kiwi short
here 60 min report from Australia property bubble popping
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_ktN_h7-J4
not even a living wage can stop the kiwi short
here 60 min report from Australia property bubble popping
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_ktN_h7-J4
A capital gains tax will not stop land speculation.
NZ was colonised by land speculators/parasites looking for “founders” rent.
The parasites are still in charge of the speculators paradise!
It is a means of getting rich quick by profiting from a limited resource, thereby ‘farming’ the unimproved value created by social demand as private gain.
Hence ‘land banking’.
Even where land is nationalised as in China speculation would not be stopped unless taxation targets unimproved value. One reason why Chinese are buying up land freehold outside China is that inside China there is much opposition to the privatisation of communal and state owned land.
The only way to remove land from speculation is to de-commodify it by socialising land ownership as part of the socialisation of the means of production.
Lease-holders would then have their income taxed on what they produced and the socialised unimproved value would not be part of the lease-holders income.
The thing about arguing from a Marxist perspective is it gets to the root of the problem and ignores the symptoms (foreign buyers).
We need more of this thinking!
Don’t trust the words of the American forked tongued currency trader that’s pretending to be NZ’s PM. He will ultimately shaft us for his rich mates here and offshore, like he has been actively doing for almost 8 years now.
John key is back flipping on his flip flop already, saying “It’s not something we’re thinking is imminent”
Capitalism cant’ survive without ban occasional bout of Socialism.
Key see’s losing votes now on this issue. This isn’t about what is the right thing to do or morals, this is about Key,Key,Key!
Tax them all if it’s an investment property, increase the tax by 50% with each additional property. Never allow properties to be uninhabited or left unmaintained. Force sale if it is unrented within a month.
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