housing

$22 Billion minutiae

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 10:00 pm, July 6th, 2011 - 131 comments

There can’t be many Kiwis who don’t know about the severity of the leaky homes crisis.  Or can there?  Oh don’t worry, he’s only the PM after all…

lprent: pushed this up the page again now that the program has aired.

That’s it?

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:22 pm, June 24th, 2011 - 10 comments

Amazing what political pressure can do. Christchurch package was clearly put together in the space of a couple of days. Buy-out at GV the obvious basic solution but will see many out of pocket. Option 2 is an admission of that but only open to some. None of the fish-hooks have been worked out. What’s Gerry been doing all this time?

Christchurch annoucement

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:30 pm, June 23rd, 2011 - 134 comments

Eddie called it. Christchurch announcement is today. There are very high hopes. Points to watch: how many in the ‘don’t know’ category & are payouts at pre-quake market values? Notable release is this afternoon just before Key leaves. Makes it difficult to get reaction from residents in time for TV news and follow-up with Key. This post will be updated after release.

Emergency housing

Written By: r0b - Date published: 1:05 pm, April 22nd, 2011 - 46 comments

Here’s some images of emergency housing from Japan and from Christchurch.  I wonder if you can spot the difference.

Credit where it’s due

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:18 am, March 21st, 2011 - 18 comments

On Friday, the government sent out a Request for Proposal for building companies to build 2,500 temporary modular homes in Christchurch. It looks like step towards the rebuilding plan I and others have been suggesting for the past couple of weeks. Now, lets see an aggressive timetable and a plan for what comes next.

Looting by another name

Written By: r0b - Date published: 7:22 am, March 11th, 2011 - 126 comments

Mayor Bob Parker has described landlords hiking rents in Christchurch as “looting by another name”.  I think the majority of us would feel as Parker does — it seems simply wrong to exploit people for profit in a time of tragedy.  But look around.  It’s just unregulated capitalism in action.  There’s an awful lot of it about.

Cometh the Hour

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 9:19 pm, March 7th, 2011 - 53 comments

ChrisH submitted this incredibly knowledgeable and well-researched post on the rebuilding of Christchurch a few days ago. The announcement that large parts now lower-lying eastern suburbs will be abandoned lends more strength to his call for a visionary urban plan for the new, more resilient Christchurch. And Phil Goff has the history to present it.

Kiwi dream RIP

Written By: r0b - Date published: 1:36 pm, February 7th, 2011 - 34 comments

Owning your own home was the foundation of the “Kiwi dream”.  Now it seems that we’ve let that dream slip further out of reach than almost anywhere in the world.  Houses in Auckland are less affordable than in New York.  Demand in the rental market is far outstripping supply.  What should the government be doing?

The widening gap

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:12 pm, January 10th, 2011 - 93 comments

No, this post isn’t about Smile and Wave’s failure to close the gap with Australia. It’s about the widening gap between the tiny elite in this country and the rest of us. Even before the Great Recession, 10% controlled more wealth than the rest of us combined. The housing market shows that their wealth is still rising while ours falls.

Wastewatch: Heatley spends $500K for nothing

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:54 am, December 10th, 2010 - 9 comments

The sum Phil Heatley has so far spent trying to get three women and their families evicted from their state houses, an effort to look tough, is the equivalent to the cost of building two new state houses. Over half a million spent on an ultimately pointless exercise – one that’s far from finished.

Housing occupation not a stunt

Written By: r0b - Date published: 7:22 am, November 11th, 2010 - 116 comments

Matt McCarten and his team took over a vacant state house in Mana to install a young couple who were previously living in a garage.  Four supporters were soon arrested.  The media are calling this action a “stunt”. To do so is to diminish the significance of the issue to which it was drawing attention.  Call it a protest.  People are living in squalor while state houses sit empty.  Why?

The first diktats

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 8:07 am, September 21st, 2010 - 29 comments

On Thursday, our new dictator Gerry Brownlee decreed by Order in Council that the following Acts of Parliament were amended: the Building Act,  the Local Government Act, the Resource Management Act, various pieces of transport legislation, and the Civil Defence Act. Most of the changes deal with minutiae of government. Some are less innocuous.

Christchurch earthquake rebuilding: speed, not haste

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:18 am, September 12th, 2010 - 72 comments

The Government has announced it intends to push through emergency legislation to expedite the rebuilding of Christchurch. The urge to put things back the way they were is only natural in the wake of a huge physical and psychic shock but shouldn’t we have a think about how we want Christchurch rebuilt before we let anyone go ahead willy-nilly?

On the edge of a second recession, Greens have a plan, Nats don’t

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:31 am, September 3rd, 2010 - 53 comments

20,000 more Kiwis’ jobs are at risk as commercial building construction grinds to a halt. The Greens have a plan to divert money from low-quality spending on motorways to high benefit to cost spending on housing that will save those jobs and give Kiwi families a better standard of living. That’s the kind of visionary economic leadership we need. We’re not going to get it from National.