When in Opposition Labour went after National over Housing. It was probably the single biggest issue that saw National lose power. They talked the big game and told voters that their solutions would solve the housing crisis.

Since then we have seen the abject failure of their flagship policy, Kiwibuild, the hounding of private landlords through draconian changes in legislation like the healthy homes initiative, the removal of interest deductability further ostracising landlords, and the increase of the bright line test to effectively bring in by stealth a capital gains tax.

And none of that has worked.

House prices around the country have continued to defy expectations, rising by 28.7 per cent to a national median of $820,000 over the year to June, the Real Estate Institute says.

Five out of the 16 regions reached new record median prices, while one region saw an equal record and 20 districts reached new record median highs.

Auckland was one of those regions. It had a 25 per cent increase in prices, which took its median price to a new record of $1,150,000 in June.

The other regions to hit new records were Waikato (up 19.7 per cent to $736,000), Taranaki (up 41.5 per cent to $580,000), Marlborough (up 56.0 per cent to $705,000), Southland (up 23.2 per cent to $420,000), and Manawatu/Wanganui (up35.6 per cent to $580,000).

Real Estate Institute chief executive Jen Baird said even the month-on-month data showed a slight uplift (up 0.3 per cent nationally), and more than half of the regions had an uplift when compared to May, which suggested the market was refusing to cool.

Stuff

And why would it cool? The Government tipped billions of dollars into the market that is awash with cheap cash.

The result is ever-increasing house prices, rising faster than inflation and wage growth. On top of that, the Government became the landlord of last resort, housing indigent and wastrels in motels at the same time as bludgeoning private landlords. Little surprise then that emergency housing wait lists have exploded.

The problem isn’t that the market has failed, the problem is that Government hasn’t allowed the market to work as markets do.

They have meddled and fiddled with the market and it has all been for naught because the nonces in charge are no better than university student politicians with no real concepts as to how markets work.

Labour aren’t the solution, they are the problem.

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As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news,...