First home buyers pleading for easier lending, but more leverage or subsidies can't be solutions; Oil bounces to US$114/bbl on EU embargo talk; Ukraine peace hopes fading
First-home-buyer grants should cease, and so should the ability to withdraw state contributions from KiwiSaver. Ultimately this is all taxpayer money being used to push up house prices and feed the property frenzy. Home ownership is a private investment. The sole job of Kainga Ora should be as a state rental housing builder and landlord, to provide homes for those who are not on the property-owning rollercoaster.
I was a big fan of green hydrogen until I found out (just a few days ago) about eCarbon and eFuels. This uses renewable electricity to extract Carbon from the atmosphere and turn it into fuel (no combustion engine conversion needed) which is carbon neutral, or carbon fibres, nanotubules, whatever for printing/moulding. There is an experimental windfarm in South America making fuel already - one day we may be worried out running out of CO2!
We simply need to resurrect state loans like state advances which have flexible terms for life events we all have like child raising years, health shocks or retirement and without discrimination ie whether partnered or not. It’s a cash cow for private banks but makes a human need for child raising and work etc inaccessible and to volatile and expensive to be useful or socially responsible. It would be a net positive to Treasury over the long term also.
The cynic in me thinks the kiwisaver grants will operate as a price floor mechanism, stimulating demand at taxpayers' expense when prices get too low, in order to prop up the middle voter.
Ahhh Bernard, of all the free emails I got from you, seeing this article has made me become a paid subscriber. It's perfect timing, just over the weekend I was looking at a townhouse that came under the cap, and was looking into applying for the grant so my wife and I can purchase our first home, after so many failed attempts in the past.
Interesting situation at the viewing for the Townhouse - it was pretty quiet, and the agent said that the price on the townhouses could be negotiated down, to fit under the 650k limit. How quickly things have changed.
One of the biggest bothers for me with the first home grant is the income cap. For my wife and I, we struggled through university to pay for life. While we got by, focusing on saving for a house was not a priority for us. Now, just under 3 years since we both finished university, we both work full-time, a couple of good promotions, and we are both above the 150k limit. The government considers us too high of income earners, but our deposit is pathetic given how we have not been able to save up until the last few years. Kiwibuild (a whole other can of worms) income caps are 180k because the government said that getting into first homes is still difficult for those on incomes that high. Seems odd they have different rules for grants.
I take your points from this edition, and agree it seems to be an ineffective policy to solve the long-term problems. I will be honest and say I recognise my own bias that I don't want this policy to go away - it would feel like the 'rug' would have been pulled away from my wife and I again.
I hope we don't more of this hype you shared from the Office of Nuclear Energy, the claims like this of magic energy sources are growing faster than Covid virus. You will find the text full of "is expected", "could", "may" etc. I' would be fine with it if it wasn't that it has a serious downside because people reading assume that it means they don't have to change anything and so nothing dows change and we carryon full speed into environmental chaos.
There is some points that you've been discussing recently; risk not on the balance sheet, depreciation, and increasing debt for future welfare benefits...
Yes we need this debate shared widely
First-home-buyer grants should cease, and so should the ability to withdraw state contributions from KiwiSaver. Ultimately this is all taxpayer money being used to push up house prices and feed the property frenzy. Home ownership is a private investment. The sole job of Kainga Ora should be as a state rental housing builder and landlord, to provide homes for those who are not on the property-owning rollercoaster.
I was a big fan of green hydrogen until I found out (just a few days ago) about eCarbon and eFuels. This uses renewable electricity to extract Carbon from the atmosphere and turn it into fuel (no combustion engine conversion needed) which is carbon neutral, or carbon fibres, nanotubules, whatever for printing/moulding. There is an experimental windfarm in South America making fuel already - one day we may be worried out running out of CO2!
https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com/insights/no-turning-back-meg-gentle/
https://www.hifglobal.com/about-us?fbclid=IwAR3GycREddlmiQ4jbcDVExJ_6mfRf7JkhXEntQlbepZmBfaNaTfwy-dcfmI
40 year mortgages?
We simply need to resurrect state loans like state advances which have flexible terms for life events we all have like child raising years, health shocks or retirement and without discrimination ie whether partnered or not. It’s a cash cow for private banks but makes a human need for child raising and work etc inaccessible and to volatile and expensive to be useful or socially responsible. It would be a net positive to Treasury over the long term also.
The cynic in me thinks the kiwisaver grants will operate as a price floor mechanism, stimulating demand at taxpayers' expense when prices get too low, in order to prop up the middle voter.
Ahhh Bernard, of all the free emails I got from you, seeing this article has made me become a paid subscriber. It's perfect timing, just over the weekend I was looking at a townhouse that came under the cap, and was looking into applying for the grant so my wife and I can purchase our first home, after so many failed attempts in the past.
Interesting situation at the viewing for the Townhouse - it was pretty quiet, and the agent said that the price on the townhouses could be negotiated down, to fit under the 650k limit. How quickly things have changed.
One of the biggest bothers for me with the first home grant is the income cap. For my wife and I, we struggled through university to pay for life. While we got by, focusing on saving for a house was not a priority for us. Now, just under 3 years since we both finished university, we both work full-time, a couple of good promotions, and we are both above the 150k limit. The government considers us too high of income earners, but our deposit is pathetic given how we have not been able to save up until the last few years. Kiwibuild (a whole other can of worms) income caps are 180k because the government said that getting into first homes is still difficult for those on incomes that high. Seems odd they have different rules for grants.
I take your points from this edition, and agree it seems to be an ineffective policy to solve the long-term problems. I will be honest and say I recognise my own bias that I don't want this policy to go away - it would feel like the 'rug' would have been pulled away from my wife and I again.
I hope we don't more of this hype you shared from the Office of Nuclear Energy, the claims like this of magic energy sources are growing faster than Covid virus. You will find the text full of "is expected", "could", "may" etc. I' would be fine with it if it wasn't that it has a serious downside because people reading assume that it means they don't have to change anything and so nothing dows change and we carryon full speed into environmental chaos.
Will you be proving any commentary on the Treasury's latest investment statement https://www.treasury.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2022-03/is22-hphp.pdf
There is some points that you've been discussing recently; risk not on the balance sheet, depreciation, and increasing debt for future welfare benefits...