Labour were warned printing billions would lead to speculation & skyrocketing rentals but screwed renters anyway 

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
45
1708

Unbelievable!

Labour were warned their printing of Billions for Corporate Banks to hand out to property speculators would see prices spike to a point out of reach of first time home buyers…

Reserve Bank repeatedly warned Government money printing would lead to house price inflation

Grant Robertson and the Government were warned in January 2020 that there was a ‘significant’ risk Reserve Bank money printing would push up house prices and deepen inequality. Despite calls from the Reserve Bank that the Government would need to act to blunt the effects of this, nearly 13 months later, nothing has been done.

…Trickle down is the failed neoliberal mythology that if the rich have more money, they will spend it and the little people feed from the crumbs.

It has been debunked a billion times with the truth being that a lift in welfare and the minimum wage actually generates more real world economic activity, so no politician ever attempts to use Trickle Down the way con artists never want to say ‘Pyramid Scheme’.

Until now.

The shocking explosion in house prices is thanks to property speculators leveraging their existing debt to borrow more at cheaper rates.

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What is most horrific is that it’s a Left wing Labour Government who have done this, despite being warned this exact thing would happen.

The play is very obvious. If property owners feel wealthier from inflated house prices, they will spend more. It was National’s economic plan for 9 years and this Government have embarked upon it again to ‘stabilise’ the economy.

What it has in fact done is given the property speculators a meth hard on for borrowing cheaply to buy everything that isn’t nailed down.

Labour have once again used a free market solution for a market warped and damaged from being so ‘free’.

None of this will hurt Labour’s new National voters with property, but Labour’s actual support base will be shocked at how quickly their aspirations have been utterly forgotten.

The truth (like everything else in fucking NZ), is that the under regulated free market has been warped by the wealthy for their interests and all Labour attempt is bullshit tinkering on the sides rather than challenge the dominance of neoliberal theology.

We have allowed the commodification of houses to be a means to make wealth and people are chasing that with all the nuance of meth addicts in a P lab.

If Labour wanted actual solutions, these 3 would do it.

1 – FLOOD MARKET WITH MASS STATE HOUSING REBUILD: End the scum landlord subsidy of housing allowances end putting money into the pockets of unscrupulous motel owners by rapidly building 50 000 new state homes. Scum Landlords can do as they please because the level of desperation amongst renters gives them total power. Flooding the market with 50 000 new state houses would rob scum landlords of that desperation.

2 – STATE HOUSE FOR LIFE: Allow beneficiaries to stay in their state home for life so that they can create stable communities and that their desperation is never transported back to Landlords.

3 – DEPOSIT RESTRICTIONS: I have no issue with people who own their own home, or have a batch or even a 3rd property to provide income into your retirement. What I have no time for is people who own 4 properties, 5 properties, 10 properties, 20 properties, 80 properties.

Fuck them.

First time home buys should be required to have 10% deposit, but the more properties you own, the higher the deposit. The reason the speculators can out buy any first time home owner is because they can use their multiple properties to leverage more debt.

If you are a property speculator, you need to turn up with a 70% deposit to counter the leverage multiple properties allows them.

If Labour want to actually solve the problem they have to regulate the market and re-set it so that speculation is punished while first home ownership and housing of the poor is championed.

For too long we have allowed the the rich to dictate the rules, if Labour’s kindness is to be meaningful, it needs to challenge that dynamic.

Unfortunately Labour are not looking for solutions, they are looking for the pretence of a solution to ease criticism from their Left.

Luckily for Jacinda, house prices could jump 50% and as long as Labour keep the Covid virus out of the country, no one will care about housing unaffordability.

What a sad indictment on NZ and its political class.

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45 COMMENTS

  1. ‘Left wing Labour Government who have done this’

    Which ‘Left wing Labour government’ is that, Martyn? NZ has a right wing government of pretence. It has been that way since 1984.

    As the owner of a modest house I DO NOT want the price to increase because that just puts up insurance costs and gives the council an excuse to charge more rates.

    Another aspect, rarely mentioned, is that the entire financial system has been so distorted by central banks lowering interest rates to close to zero there are no returns for money deposited in banks. It is now foolish to have money in the bank because such money loses value at a phenomenal rate.

    We should also note that the massive influx of fake money into share markets (particularly in the US) has blown such enormous bubbles most people are terrified to go near shares, so they invest in houses because at least a house is tangible, whereas every other so-called asset in the financial world is ephemeral.

    Just like everything else the so-called government fails to act on, the housing bubble will end very badly. Indeed, central banking and all that goes with it will end very badly.

    It’s just the timing of the collapse we are not sure about. Every time the system looks about to fall over either irrational exuberance or manipulation by the unseen controllers of the system gives the system another unjustifiable boost.

    Of course, the top 10% in NZ are doing just fine in NZ, as is the case in America.

    https://www.oftwominds.com/blogfeb21/middle-class2-21.html

    When the ‘middle class’ in NZ start to ‘die’, as will surely happen, the real trouble starts for NZ governments. Government policies make death of the middle class inevitable, as the underclass gets pushed further off the cliff.

    Meanwhile, the government makes everything that matters [long term] worse faster.

    • This housing bubble had its roots in a set of international banking regulations known as Basel 1, after the Swiss city the regulation development group was working in. Later sets of regulation were called Basel 2,3,..

      What Basel 1 did was set the minimum capital requirements for financial institutions to hold so they could do the fractional reserve banking that boost their lending capacity. Housing loans (i.e. mortgages) were deemed essentially risk free for banks, so the mortgage lending did not count against the capital reserves the banks had to hold onto. Therefore, mortgages became much much better business for banks than any other type of loan.

      • It’s a nice theory however fails when we start considered property values in different countries and locations. The clearest example of this close to home is South East Queensland where there is so much supply that median house prices have barely moved in the past 10 years.

        it’s a combination of factors (basel being one) however the evidence coming through recently is supply is the largest. Case in point in NZ is that Whangarei and Dunedin have a higher median price than Christchurch

  2. I share Martyn’s anger, but not his solutions.

    Why does the left never support reform of land planning laws that would flood the market with land and massively reduce the premium paid for sections?
    Unlike finding a million new tradies to build new housing, land supply is something the NZ political class could actually do something about!

    The privileged (not just the wealthy) use town planning laws to keep their housing assets protected from competing supply.

    • ” land planning laws that would flood the market with land “.. Just how big do you think NZ is? The reality is that there is ample land available already, without the rank stupidity that the last government, and local councils indulged in by encouraging the sale of highly productive farmland and crop growing areas to speculators… This is becoming a real issue for us, as our ability to feed ourselves without the necessity of importing what we used to grow is becoming a reality… The “million tradies” is a ridiculous figure plucked out of thin air.. There is more than enough under utilised labour capacity in NZ, but the system of training was handed over to the private sector by the Bolger government which was entrenched even further by the Key government, with a relatively weak attempt to rebalance, using “market” tools by the Clarke govt… Councils can no more be trusted to administer a “fairer” setup than Key could be trusted not to sell us out to China… A system that places productive crop growing areas and farmland out of bounds for speculation is vital if we are going to be even close to self sufficient in the staples of life… So can anybody explain to me the logic behind labeling people who resist open slather speculation of our vital resources as “the left”.. ? Are those on “the right” therefore those who are only interested in exploiting our economy for personal wealth? Is it just me, or is this just a means of reducing serious debate down to trite sloganeering?

      • I made a straightforward suggestion about what the political class could do immediately.

        How does re-visiting the actions of the Bolger, Clarke and Key governments help build cheaper houses, or even add to the debate?

  3. Those of us who actually want real progressive change need to jump off the Ardern / Labour bandwagon and vote for someone else. This isnt working and it’s never going to work whilst we continue to support parties bedded to neoliberalism. Every three years because of bullshit words they spout to us such as “transformation” or “hope and change” we get all passionate and in line for another term of disappointment and ever growing inequality. It’s time to wake the hell up and realize that Labour isnt Labour anymore. We have National, worse National, National light, woke National and the Maori party. Ardern is a charlatan.

  4. Sure they were told about a property bubble if money washed through banks (yet Orr was the one who took off the deposit criteria for the year, not the government – his concern was that construction activity continued), but Treasury said the alternative the government getting printed money would put our 1984-2020 neo-liberal reputation at risk.

  5. What does this say about Grant Robertson? Labour in name only, beige National man in reality.

    Just wait for the budget announcements. A choreographed masterpiece in tid bits designed this slightly alleviate the worst of the symptoms. Throw a bit more money at rental subsidies (more payola for landlords) and cheaper doctors visits to make it look like they give a shit.

    And more tantalising snippets of the upcoming wedding.

    Wake me when this is over!

    • ‘What does this say about Grant Robertson?’

      He is a professional liar.

      He is incompetent.

      ‘Finance Minister Grant Robertson will on Tuesday unveil the 2021 Budget Policy Statement – the Government’s over-arching goals that will guide the Budget – having fallen short of meeting a commitment made ahead of Budget 2020.

      Robertson, in a speech to BusinessNZ members on April 15, said he saw the COVID-19 recovery as an “opportunity to reset our economy”.

      “We must also not allow inequality to take hold in our recovery,” he said.

      “We need to take this opportunity to improve the prospects of all New Zealanders and tackle those long-standing divisions.”

      Labour accordingly took the vaguer, “build back better” slogan to the October election.

      While the Government should be credited for playing an instrumental role in keeping many of us healthy and employed (two vital things), Robertson has not tackled New Zealand’s “long-standing division”.

      In fact, the split between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ is worse than it was a year ago…..’

      https://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/108922/jen%C3%A9e-tibshraenys-take-revelation-treasury-and-rbnz-year-ago-warned-robertson-he-may

      • Excellent article, as Interest.Co is doing lately.

        Ill go further however.

        Not a day goes by when One Roof, for example, and its property porn, where some part of the country is not creaking under out of control property prices which of course only exacerbates rental problems exponentially. It has well reached the point where the sum of most of this countries problems comes back to the total housing crisis.

        I can’t be bothered with another public holiday, or climate change policy, or half arsed taking Maori problems seriously because nothing is ever going to get better until our deaf and dumb government starts waking up to the growing nightmare that is facing NZ.

        Nothing that comes out of the PM’s mouth is worth listing to, until she and her thus far useless party take this seriously.

        The concerning reality is we have to wait for the whole shooting match to implode before our moronic self interested government finally realises the problem exists.

    • if you saw tonight’s news it seems Grant Robinson has taken his eye of Air NZ who despite getting a huge amount from the government decides to help any other country in a war that we condemn

  6. The issue is also hitting the rental sector – rents are skyrocketing. If you can’t afford a house, then you have to rent. Speculation is rife throughout accomodation of all kinds.

    St Jacinda of the photo-op does it again!

    So, if we don’t vote Labour (pseudo Left), who do we vote for? The Maori Party calls itself ‘centre left’, which is a worry. There just is no left wing party around. You may think I’ve lost my senses, but we would have been in better shape with the leadership of David Cunliffe.

    • I agree. At least David Cunliffe knew what needed to be done and didn’t mind saying it out loud.
      That’s why the corporate driven media viciously and relentlessly rounded on him and brought out all their fake news stories.
      Some Labour MPs were shameful not supporting their leader. Some of those same people have power now, but it’s wasted if all they are set on being is mediocre.
      I never thought in a million years that i’d be quoting Sarah Palin but they might soon be asked ,”how’s that hopey changey thing working out for ya”.

    • Yes. It is a worry there’s no alternative left party to vote for. I no longer vote Green since they went all authoritarian, no-debate, censor members who disagree with them jumping on the neoliberal gender identity ideology.

      If they can so easily ignore their foundational principle of listening to all voices, grass roots participant democracy, how can they be trusted in power?

      The only NZ party I gave some consideration was Social credit. They are pretty much Pakeha dominated, and centrist on many things. But they also favour public services: eg health care.

      I don’t agree with all their policies. But there are other policies I do agree with eg increase state housing. And they don’t stand much chance of getting an MP into the House – but I will look at them next election to give a possible protest vote.

      https://www.socialcredit.nz/policies

  7. Capitalism and markets only work if markets can have a downside for investors.

    Successive governments since 1996 have taken away the downside in buying housing. They have impoverished the young and future generations to enrich today’s homeowners, who are mainly older.

    • Exactly right.
      I know of people who already own more than 2 houses and are about to buy more, quoting me the expectation of year on year 15% per annum capital gains to be had. They have never seen a downturn and tell me with absolute surety that the Government would never let that happen. I try to reason with them that the market currently and considerably defies all the the laws of economics by a significant margin, but they won’t have a bar of it and have the fingers firmly planted in their ears.

  8. NZ is trying its hardest to become a Dickensian England where those at the top controlled the majority, living in harsh poverty, through fear and rent control. I am absolutely shocked that a party called LABOUR has made this inequality so much worse? I am disgusted. I have started to hate the country that I once loved. The greed is fast becoming a sickness. I made the mistake of joining a landlords facebook page just to see how they thought and they have so much contempt for the less fortunate that I actually cried. I have decided to move to Australia and start a new life there. House prices around the Gold Coast are affordable and are great quality and almost brand new. I think everyone in NZ who have been abandoned by the current Charlatan should do the same. Jacinda is a fraud, she smiles and shows compassion for your situation whilst secretly telling Grant to go ahead and make Orr to ruin your life? This whole situation makes me so sad.

    • Graham,

      Jacinda is paid $500k poer year, and has a house that has probably gone up in value by $600k since she’s been in power, at the expense of the working class. Labour and kindness? How about vested interests?

      Got room in your bag for a few other refugees from neo-kindness? I’ve actually thought about Australia seriously, but NZ citizens are second-class over there. Not too serious in my case wth an Aussie wife so there is a path to Aussie citizenship for me, but many kiwis are not so lucky.

  9. Yet everyone here at TDB continually champions moar borrowing! Every new dollar put into the economy is immediately spent. In a capitalist society that money is going to find, one way or another, an ROI (return on investment). The Keynesian/MMT folks just don’t think the real world consequences of “borrowing” (i.e. money printing, since there is ZERO intention of every paying these debts back) through. When the government tightens spending they whine about needing “stimulus” and “investment”, when they print money they whine about the inflation that such programs are guaranteed to create.

    • There is a difference in impact of the money going through banks onto speculators than via government (debt and or printing) the former will result in more inequality and the latter less. Hence Treasury preference for the trickle down neo liberal variety/former.

      Also printing money does not load government with the debt, constraining government with the cost of debt has alongside monetary policy to control inflation been central to a generation of neo-liberalism (QE to manage the GFC, now the pandemic and the future cost of GW action is calling it into question).

      • All QE programs (afaik) to date were effectively loading the government with debt, since the treasury printed the money to buy their own treasuries – providing both money to spend and artificially lowering interest rates. Given that there was never an intention to pay any of this money back (and why would you, given you owe the money to yourself?) this seems like the mythical free lunch.
        MMT I think has effectively proven that “debts don’t matter” – especially when you look at Japan’s eye-watering 300% of GDP debt load (the highest in any country, developed or otherwise) and with no catastrophic inflation.
        The fact is (as far as I can tell), since 2009 most of the world has been in a constant state of recession. Printing money into its maw has had little to no effect on overall “inflation” as measured by the state (indeed it is likely partially off-setting the general deflation recession brings – the worst enemy of governments and banks). Of course we know that the government interpretation of “inflation” is more than a little disingenuous – all this printing has been factually highly inflationary but only if you look in the right places (e.g. cryptocurrencies, housing, stock markets etc) – i.e. things that have made the already wealthy a LOT wealthier.

  10. Your suggestions are common sense, especially the higher deposits. In the event there were some global crisis that trashed the housing market, it would also nicely insulate from losses.

    As the years pass I am convinced the government background bureaucrats are working a plan so that the level of desperation becomes SO BAD emergency measures are passed, leading to a massive erection of temporary homes.

    End result is that the $ rental price crashes, but that poor people will live in things we never would have accepted in 2010-15. It will be terrible.

    • How are first home owners going to get on the ladder with high deposits????? It should be 50%+ equity for investors while first home owners should be able to access 100% mortgages if they met criteria (aka graduate doctor, no deposit but almost certainly going to be able to pay a mortgage).

  11. I have been a renter and a landlord. I think one of the problems with the rental market is the fact that so many single rental homes are owned by mum and dad owners . They are probably over stretched money wise and cannot afford to do maintenance when required. On the other hand the person with 10 or 20 homes is on the job full time as it is a business not a part time nice to have and will keep his investments up to scratch. If the state had enough houses to set the market rate of both rent and condition the system would be better for all concerned and bad landlords would be forced out.

    • Yes, as in Europe, we need the rental market to be a business – and a regulated business. We also need a massive and active public housing sector. What we largely have instead is people having one or a few extra properties for rental, with the renter effectively buying the asset for the owner. Lack of maintenance is often a considered choice in these circumstances!

      • People in NZ like to cherry pick – for example Sweden’s rental laws favour the tenants, the problem is, that there is a 7 year waiting list for a rental house in Sweden and renters ‘hoard’ housing aka illegally sublet their rentals because they once they get one, they do not want to give it up. In Germany, the renters look after their houses, have secure jobs so live in them for years (unlike NZ where losing your job and having zero job security is normal so people need to move houses all the time). You have to put in your own kitchen in Germany, as you get a shell and you also have to return the rental back to it’s original state, aka no wear and tear. The housing is modest in size, nobody is renting 200m2 housing. It’s 65m2. Tenants are responsible remediation back to it’s pre rented state. It is a balance with what is going on in the country. NZ has to cope with Dickensen labour laws, people who can’t even afford a bond let alone a kitchen install, expect large housing and also don’t have to look after the place beyond an absolute minimum standard.

    • Agreed, the NZ rental market is full of amateurs and cowboys looking for easy money. Owning houses should never be a for profit enterprise IMHO, it should be a social function provided by Govt or big NGOs who have decent standards.

      The rental market in NZ is a disgraceful laissez-faire unregulated shit-show. Unreasonable rent increases, endless PR from the Property Investors Federation (parasitic freeloaders infestation), general neglect and dampness, disrespect for privacy, anti-tenant tactics in Facebook groups, etc etc.

    • It’s the opposite – the social housing providers and state seem to have the worst maintenance levels… when you put bureaucrats in charge of housing, Glenfell happens. Standards fall, there is just voiceless bureaucrats who do nothing to complain to. Before Rogernomics and Globalism, NZ was the picture card of non homelessness.

      • In chch the council sold its houses to a charity and one case came to light recently of a tenant being told there was a 5 year wait to get a cracked window fixed that occurred in the earthquake 10 years ago. In another home they were told it was impossible to get insulation in the roof but 2 installers said they could do it so the lady paid for the job herself and then was given a quit notice because she did the job without their permission

        • Exactly – renting is one of the few areas where individuals do a better job in many cases than the state, councils and social housing providers which are essentially the new way to make profits and make no tax, while pretending to be a charity.

          What is more bizarre is that with healthy homes the most vulnerable tenants have to wait longer than private rentals for the healthy homes. Nothing makes any sense. Do government just ask business and woke to put their wish list in a hat and then pick out random strategies that don’t make any sense?

  13. I so fkn laugh at Ardern’s ‘be kind’.

    Yet it brought her a landslide election. Anyone interested found her and Grant dubious at best. In the end a party has to come home to the interested. I hope Andrew Little has learnt their propaganda techniques and now can pursue substance via. Zilch loyalty to the 84 regime for the rich.

  14. The real fun will commence when the NZ economy goes tits-up (certain to happen fairly soon), and most of the renters lose their jobs and stop paying rent -as has happened in the US.

    Unlike the US, we do not have a global reserve currency and therefore cannot print trillions of dollars to hand out to corporations, with a small portion going to the masses to prop things up a little longer.

    The hundreds of millions already paid out to corporations, especially in the tourism sector, is gone forever, with no return and no prospect of a return.

    Until the global financial mess actually erupts into a global meltdown, we can expect Jacinda and company to keep pretending they know what they are doing. And to keep enriching themselves.

    With share prices bearing no relationship to the actual earnings of companies, and even less relationship to future earnings, the casino-Ponzi scheme must surely be only months away from collapsing.

    And until the collapse DOES COME, we must anticipate further misallocation and squandering of resources -because that’s all the criminals and clowns that pretend to govern know.

  15. People have the totally unjustified (and unjustifiable) perception that houses are permanent.

    In the real world, houses, like practically everything else manmade, are susceptible to corrosion or erosion or rot (especially when poorly maintained -and there is a tendency for landlords to do the minimum of maintenance). And many houses are in locations susceptible to landslides and flooding or wind damage. Not to mention earthquakes. Indeed, as all the best sites were seized a century ago, there is a tendency to construct in MORE SUSCEPTIBLE locations.

    By the same toke, there is a perception that [concrete] dams are permanent, and that if all else fails, we will still have hydro. Yet the failure of a number of dams in America and elsewhere has drawn attention to the fact that dams are not permanent.

    Okay, NZ may not have a fast-moving glacier demolish a dam (as happened yesterday in India) but the dams we regard as permanent are slowly decaying -attacked by old ‘friend’ atmospheric CO2.

    Interestingly, there has been ample warning about this (like so many other things) which the government has chosen to ignore -because reality doesn’t fit well with the bullshit mantra of economists and bureaucrats.

    ‘Water Warning: The Looming Threat of the World’s Aging Dams

    Tens of thousands of large dams across the globe are reaching the end of their expected lifespans, leading to a dramatic rise in failures and collapses, a new UN study finds. These deteriorating structures pose a serious threat to hundreds of millions of people living downstream’

    …But there is growing concern worldwide about a lack of inspectors capable of assessing the risk from aging dams, leading to backlogs of inspections and hazards that are missed. An investigation after the failure of the Oroville Dam in the United States found that past inspections had failed to spot structural flaws. As Wieland puts it: “Not everything is visible or measurable.”…

    …The U.S. is the world leader in decommissioning dams, with more than a thousand removed over the past 30 years. But even so, its dams removed to date have mostly been small, usually less than 16 feet in height. An exception was the 87-year-old Glines Canyon Dam in Olympic Park, Washington, removed in 2014. At 210 feet, the dam was the largest ever taken down. The task took two decades to plan and execute. But thousands more such removals are likely to be necessary to prevent an upsurge of dam disasters, says Smakhtin.

    “Some dams are so big it is difficult to imagine how to approach the problem,” he says. “Look at the Kariba dam. It is absolutely huge, and by mid-century, it will be a hundred years old. Hopefully there will by then be technology to decommission it. But right now we don’t know how to do it.”

    https://e360.yale.edu/features/water-warning-the-looming-threat-of-the-worlds-aging-dams?fbclid=IwAR3aaxHWVhjqRvIM6hpiLpIHsEBFaB314cY7I7F0W02oQGKbRTl2PDlTuK4

    • Hindsight to a point.

      The housing market had been going ballistic for months. The RB looked on, their job done. The government meanwhile, firstly didn’t seem to register what was going on, then worried about getting reelected, then mused that voters (home owners) expect rising house prices, went on holiday thinking how great they were and everything was kapai.

      They were massively wrong. They were too arrogant and too thick to realise what damage a runaway house market does to society. They came back from holiday, unbelievably, wondering why this subject won’t go away.

      They were and remain blind to the shit storm this is causing.

      I suspect Jacinda sees this only as a possible polling issue, and it certainly will become one, but she thinks only if not enough spin and box ticking tinkering is deployed. But I honestly think she doesn’t get what carnage this is causing and what irreversible harm this will do to NZ.

      They are horribly out of synch on this problem and at this rate will likely go down with it.

  17. The only way to address this housing crisis is to mass-build state houses. The big problem is the price of land and young NZers will never be able to afford a house. The price of land put home ownership out of reach of most of the population in 2012 and had been rising ever since to where it is today and will be for another few years as more people fall off the ownership ladder.
    A good start would be for the Govt to tender out the supply and assembly of house components to Chinese, Korean of Malaysian companies. With all the logs that go to these countries, they could provide the components (to NZ specifs) including fasteners, bring them over in containers (3 house lots per container). They could then bring over builders or assemblers with help and supervision by NZers. They could start by building on Maori land in the regions or local authority lands – forget about Auckland and other cities as the lands too expensive.

    • Yep under Rogernomics we send our logs to china for processing with no added value and don’t earn much, then we ship them back and pay much more for our own raw products – that was the globalism solution that has been shown as very risky with Covid and before that non tantalising with leaky building.

      Has not worked well for NZ so far and even if it had, NZ can’t get any supplies into and out of NZ easily with Covid, products have Covid traces, much of stuff coming being imported in NZ is not fit for purpose (lead taps, fire risk cladding, asbestos, untantalised timber, bad PPE). Ports don’t even have enough containers in NZ to ship at present! Then there is climate change and global requirements for cutting emissions, taking everything backwards and forwards not really good for the environment.

  18. Welcome to your new foreign owned billionaire Landlord! Rogernomics still our number 1 vehicle in NZ for Labour (and Greens).

    “A Russian billionaire with a luxury lodge in Northland is extending his stake in New Zealand by investing in affordable housing.

    Alexander Abramov, who built a $50 million luxury lodge complex on an estate at Helena Bay, north of Whangarei, is investing in New Zealand property development through a vehicle called Targa Capital.

    The company partners with property developers and has Overseas Investment Office (OIO) consent to invest in seven residential property developments throughout New Zealand over three years.

    All the shares in Targa Capital are owned by Endurance Capital, the directors of which are Moscow-based businessman Ian Cochrane, Auckland businessman Chris Seel and Auckland lawyer Geoffrey Hosking. Seel owns all the shares in Endurance.

    Abramov’s involvement in Targa was revealed in a 2019 application to the OIO for investment approval for investments that might relate to sensitive land.

    In the application, Targa disclosed it was ultimately controlled and received the majority of its funding from Abramov, who made his fortune buying struggling mines and steel mills in Russia and Ukraine.”

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/124125670/russian-billionaire-investing-in-kiwibuild-to-help-housing-crisis

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