Generation Rent by Eaqub Shamubeel Eaqub Selena

Author:Eaqub, Shamubeel, Eaqub, Selena
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Shamubeel Eaqub, Selena Eaqub, generation rent, economics, home ownership, renting, New Zealand, income gap, generation gap, BWB Texts, e-singles
Publisher: Bridget Williams Books
Published: 2015-08-21T16:00:00+00:00

If we are to solve New Zealand’s housing crisis, the public must be united in its understanding of the issues, the outcomes being sought, and the policies that will be needed to bring about a solution.

Without a shared vision and common purpose, fractured politics will lead us down a path that pits one generation against another. We need to have a mature conversation about what values we favour, what we plan to do and how we will stick to that plan, because the solutions will take a generation to implement. They will also be complex, because they have to increase housing affordability over time, acknowledging that home ownership is important to New Zealanders, while simultaneously improving rental conditions for those who choose to or are forced to rent long term.

To expect an easy and quick solution is delu­sional. Sadly, much of the public debate centres on one quick fix, such as banning foreign investment or limiting immigration. Equally, however, to despair of the task, to argue that it is too hard and that we can do nothing, is a road to ruin.

To expect our political leaders to do the right thing is of course ambitious. Since the 1990s, successive governments of various political leanings have presided over a long erosion of housing affordability. Courageous leadership on housing is clearly needed, but remains absent. Politicians at once want to increase house prices in order to satisfy home owners, and lower them in order to please renters wishing to buy. (The average member of Parliament owns at least two homes.2) As a result, current housing policies tend to favour home owners and rental investors. Banks are also a powerful lobby group and, as institutions that invest heavily in mortgages, their main aim is to see house prices rise. Several banking chief executives have publicly denied that there is a housing bubble at all.3 Young people, many of whom have disengaged from parliamentary democracy (in the 2014 election, just over half of non-voters were aged under forty4), lack a strong voice in political discourse and are disadvantaged by New Zealand’s housing policies. The interests of future generations, those not yet born or too young to vote, are arguably not represented at all. So if we are to expect leadership on housing, those New Zealanders who are engaged will have to understand the issues better and use their political power. Renters now make up more than half the country: that is a powerful constituency for change. Our aim in this book is to inform that growing desire for change with our understanding of the issues, consequences and solutions.

Since our housing problems have been caused by many different factors, accumulating over time, they cannot be fixed by a single policy change. There will not be ‘one solution to rule them all’. The first set of solutions – palliative in their nature – will be to provide better and more sustainable living conditions for Generation Rent. The second set will take the heat out of the

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