There are concerns over how much it will help Kiwis into home ownership
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Calls on the government to subsidise mortgages and assist Kiwis into home ownership has evoked a mixed reaction from prominent groups. While one expressed agreement, another said the agenda would be a “disaster.”
Support group Salvation Army, in its new paper Beyond Renting, suggested New Zealand needs KiwiBuy – a government subsidised home-ownership programme to help New Zealanders buy homes.
The Green Party agrees with Salvation Army that bold new steps are needed to stop “worrying” trajectory of homelessness.
“A solution like KiwiBuy is needed,” Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson said. “The Green Party has already called for 10% of all Kiwibuild homes to be shared equity homes where families rent to buy as part of a government subsidised home ownership programme.”
Activist group New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union, meanwhile, said Salvation Army’s home ownership subsidy agenda would be a “disaster.”
“Home ownership subsidies were tried in the United States in the ten years prior to the global financial crisis,” Taxpayer’s Union economist Joe Ascroft explained. “The subsidies encouraged families who were not well equipped to take on mortgages to do so anyway, in the pursuit of expanding home ownership.
“The policy was a disaster because when families failed to meet mortgage payments, banks and the government were saddled with significant debt burdens, with taxpayers eventually forced to bail out the financial sector,” he added.
