housing Archive

  • Holly Walker

    Talking Child Poverty in Whangarei - by Holly Walker



    Yesterday I went on my first official trip as an MP, to Whangarei. My colleagues tell me the novelty of the travel will wear off, but I don’t think the buzz from connecting directly with people doing amazing and inspiring work on the issues I care about is going to wear off any time soon. [...] read more
    January 24, 2012 5:57 pm - 37 Comments
  • Holly Walker

    Good news for landlords, not for renters - by Holly Walker



    Hey guys, guess what? GOOD NEWS! TradeMe Property has analysed house rental listings for the last three months and determined that tenant demand is up. The number of enquiries from potential tenants about rental properties in the December quarter was up 13 percent since the same time in 2010. Great news right? If you’re a landlord. read more
    January 18, 2012 12:17 pm - 32 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    Why Metiria and I are sleeping rough tonight - by Gareth Hughes



    Tonight, Metiria Turei and I are sleeping rough in Auckland as part of the Lifewise Big Sleepout, to raise funds and awareness on homeless issues. read more
    July 7, 2011 3:08 pm - 8 Comments
  • David Clendon

    Sprawling housing not really cheaper - by David Clendon



    As promised, some further thoughts  about the way Auckland should or could grow. One of Auckland’s biggest problems is housing affordability and any plan to grow the city must address this.  While housing affordability is a serious issue for all NZers, it’s particularly bad in Auckland. Recently I asked the Parliamentary library to do some research which [...] read more
    December 15, 2010 12:08 pm - 20 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    Why I’m sore and tired - by Gareth Hughes



    Last night, along with 60 others, I slept rough in downtown Auckland as part of Lifewise’s Big Sleep Out to raise money and awareness for homelessness. I slept on cardboard in a car park and used my jacket as a pillow. Having a young child I know what sleepless nights are all about but last [...] read more
    October 15, 2010 10:42 am - 9 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    Cold and damp or warm and healthy? - by Gareth Hughes



    Renting? What’s your flat like? If you are like a huge number of tenants renting, chances are your flat is cold, damp and unhealthy. The poor state of our rental housing is one of the biggest issues facing students, the young, the elderly and our poorest and most vulnerable. I’m in Dunedin tomorrow, thermometer in [...] read more
    July 28, 2010 10:55 pm - 22 Comments
  • Gareth Hughes

    Have your say on the Building Act - by Gareth Hughes



    The Government is looking at changing the Building Act and is currently consulting on its proposals, so this is your chance to have your say.  It’s a big deal – along with food and water, shelter is one of the essentials of life. The last big review in 2004 cleaned up many of the disastrous [...] read more
    April 12, 2010 1:29 pm - 8 Comments
  • frog

    Mortgagee sales in Auckland – graph - by frog



    Sayeth the NZ Herald: the number of mortgagee sales – where a borrower’s property is sold by the [bank] – reached the highest levels since records began They’ve only been keeping records since 1994 though At the end of the article there are some numbers, which I made a graph of Manukau (orange line) is [...] read more
    March 4, 2010 5:06 pm - 6 Comments
  • Metiria Turei

    A money gobbling stadium or a productive tertiary asset? - by Metiria Turei



    The Dunedin City Council remains committed to squandering a couple of hundred million dollars of ratepayer money on the white elephant Awatea Stadium while allowing a major tertiary investment to go down the tubes. Otago Polytech and the University were working together to develop a design institute that they would share. They were promised a [...] read more
    March 23, 2009 8:00 am - 16 Comments
  • frog

    Sue Bradford goes in search of National’s State Housing - by frog



    Green MP Sue Bradford  asks the Housing Minister: Does he see any opportunity to simultaneously deal with the job losses in the housing construction sector and assist the nearly 10 thousand people on the Housing New Zealand waiting list? The Minister manages to insult the former Minister, requiring an apology and withdrawal, then goes on [...] read more
    March 6, 2009 2:02 pm - 14 Comments
  • frog

    The Best Place For Rental Shake-Up is Toi- let - by frog



    I and many other frogs out there am renting so I’m pretty concerned about National’s shake up of rental laws led by Housing Minister Phil Heatley. The reason given for the shake-up seems to be that the scales have swung too far towards the tenants. If so this will be news to a lot of [...] read more
    February 19, 2009 5:37 pm - 59 Comments
  • frog

    Moving the homeless out of sight - by frog



    It seems what Auckland City Councillor Paul Goldsmith really wants is a huge carpet at the end of Queen Street under which he can sweep all the homeless people.  (Well, at least they might be warmer). Since when did our collective response to homelessness and the associated housing poverty that accompanies it become to complain [...] read more
    September 4, 2008 1:49 pm - 12 Comments
  • frog

    More than 3000 new houses a year - by frog



    Sue Bradford launched the Greens’ housing policy last night in Otahuhu.  The policy signals an important shift from seeing houses as an investment for landlords to a home for people in need.  The NZPA story highlights some of the key points including: raising the rate of building and acquiring state houses through Housing New Zealand [...] read more
    September 2, 2008 8:20 am - 38 Comments
  • frog

    $1 billion of warm homes - by frog



    The have been the usual voices in favour and against the Greens’ decision to back the Emissions Trading Scheme, and I’ll talk more about that later. But I also just saw a media release coming from a different angle from the Director of the University of Otago Wellington’s He Kainga Oranga/Housing and Health Research Programme [...] read more
    August 27, 2008 4:30 pm - 47 Comments
  • frog

    Buying your own state house - by frog



    It’s not often I agree with National on the issue of state housing but I reckon its policy as apparently described by Phil Heatley yesterday seems fairly sensible: Housing spokesman Phil Heatley told a Housing Institute seminar in Waitakere yesterday that National would give back to Housing New Zealand tenants the right to buy their [...] read more
    July 23, 2008 8:45 am - 22 Comments
  • frog

    Dropping a Brick - by frog



    In the US housing market, prices are falling faster than during the Great Depression. Goodness, I pray that doesn’t happen here! In an article last week, the Economist reported that: Unfortunately, new figures this week reveal that house prices have already fallen by more over the past 12 months than in any year during the [...] read more
    June 9, 2008 4:50 pm - 42 Comments