National is slamming government housing policies after new data revealed the largest house price increase on record.
The data from Trade Me says sellers want on average 25% more for their property than they did last year, with the largest increases for first homebuyers where prices have gone up by 29% in the past year.
“It is clear that the Government’s housing package announced last March has failed,” National housing spokesperson Nicola Willis says.
“Labour was elected on a promise to solve New Zealand’s housing crisis. Instead, by almost every measure, they have made it worse.”
Willis says the issues in the market have been triggered by new taxes introduced in 2021 and rising interest rates and credit regulations. She says the government bidding for new homes against first home buyers has triggered the almost 30 per cent rise in the low end.
“This government is destroying the New Zealand dream of home-ownership.”
Willis says the government needs to make houses easier to build and reduce compliance restrictions on landlords, which has seen properties removed from the rental market.
“National believes that New Zealand can once again be a place where hardworking, aspirational, everyday people can see a path to homeownership.”