It was announced today that New Zealands housing market has reached an all-time national average high of just under 700,000 dollars, an increase by 3.3 percent from last year. Now, not only are the prices rising in Auckland but also all around the country, with eight other regions stepping into the pricey limelight. Vanessa Taylor of Real Estate NZ took the time with me to explain these recent findings, and why New Zealanders are still in the market for property despite these prices …
Lisa Boudet brings us an overview of the Healthy Homes Standards released by the government this week, and a report on the financial cost of poor housing conditions in New Zealand. Mayor Phil Goff chatted about these issues with Mikey on Breakfast the same morning, so this audio is included, as well as a brief interview with Dr Lynn Riggs who co-authored the research.
Former bFM newsteamers Mandus Örarbäck and Caitlin McIlhagga (now General Manager) report on the decision to declare Ihumātao a Special Housing Area.
Given the escalation following the serving of an eviction notice one month ago, we thought we'd repost the first piece 95bFM News ever did on the issue.
The government’s KiwiBuild housing programme was officially reset yesterday, by new Housing Minister Megan Woods. The target of 100,000 houses over a decade is gone - replaced with a target to simply build as many houses as possible, as quickly as possible. Buyers of KiwiBuild studios and one-bedrooms now only having to commit to living in the house for one year rather than three, before they can sell it. And, there’s a commitment of 400-million dollars to a progressive home ownership scheme - something which was in the Green Party's confidence and supply agreement, but which we don’t have a lot of information on just yet.
National’s Housing Spokesperson Judith Collins has been very critical of the policy since its inception. Host Stewart Sowman-Lund spoke with her this morning to get her reaction to the reset… and started by asking her if she feels any better about KiwiBuild after the reset.
Leilani Farha is visiting Aoteroa. Yesterday, she declared the housing crisis a "human rights crisis of significant proportions". Lillian joined us on The Wire today to give a report put together by bFM Wellington correspondent Ryan Mckee.
As part of our election coverage on housing, Bronwyn speaks to Greg Street, an Eco Design Advisor from the Hutt City Council about how we can make our houses more healthy, cheaper to heat and, as a result, more environmentally friendly. As well as talking about existing and potential government policy, the two pondered the question: why don't New Zealanders demand better?
Last week it was reported that the waitlist for public housing is up 50 percent on this time last year with 18,000 people currently registered. Jemima Huston speaks to Ronji Tanielu who is a lawyer and principal policy advisor for the Salvation Army about the increase in the public housing waitlist. They promises the current government made in terms of public housing and whether they’ve been met and what the Salvation Army hopes to see a new government do to combat Aotearoa's long waitlist for housing support.
Felix takes a look at the Stats NZ "Housing in Aotearoa" report which was released on Tuesday. The report covers New Zealand's current housing market and compares to data from previous years, with pretty dire implications for renters.
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