Allowing Treasury to create Tax Credits to pay for land, then allowing negotiation of a land fee which is less than what the landowner is paying now to banks and on rates, will gradually take land out of the market place, cool the Auckland housing bubble and bring jobs back to the provinces

1. Land rentals solve
housing bubbles
How Government can help solve Auckland’s housing
bubble and bring jobs back to the provinces

2. The two speed housing
economy.
• From 2007 to 2013
Auckland house prices
rose on average 13% a
year.This is when
corrected for inflation.
• Meanwhile in the
provinces the real house
prices had dropped 20%
in that same time.

3. Auckland house prices
Median price
was $561,000
though mean
price was
$648K
(Barfoot and
Thompson 4
Sept 2013)

4. The Average Price of a
House in Herne Bay
The average
price of a house
in Herne Bay is
$2 million.
House prices
rise 15% a year
so every year it
goes up by
$300kThis one is $3.75million

5. The windfall belongs to
society
• The rise in property value is almost 100% due
to land value rising and when land values rise
that is because of the activities of the
community, of broader society. So 100% of that
rise belongs to society.
• Each site is serviced by central and local
government, business, organisations and Nature

6. • Without people land has no value.

7. In the provinces
• It is not the same. Real house values declined 20% from 2007 to
2013. In a city like Dunedin, businesses have gone, population has
moved to Auckland or Australia.

8. Government must
intervene
• It can’t buy land with NZD because there
are not enough NZ dollars to do it with.
• So Treasury must create new Tax Credits to
pay for land.
• These will be acceptable for tax, student
loans and other payments to Government.

9. A voluntary opt in
scheme needed
• Interventions should not cause market
turbulence. Moreover Government can’t buy land
so change land to leasehold and charge a
percentage.
• Why? Leasehold without an index doesn’t work
because you get sudden leaps in lease, as in
Cornwall Park Trust Board leases.

10. Why not a straight land
tax?
• This requires regular valuations and they can
be disputed.
• It also brings a big problem because every
year the land value will go down and so the
percentage land tax would have to rise.
Messy.
• It implies that land can be “owned” and has a
“market value”

11. Homeowners will opt-in and
negotiate
• Homeowners can ask Treasury to pay for their
land. In exchange the homeowner must pay a
regular land fee to government (like a lease).
• Each homeowner will negotiate a fee that is less
than they are currently paying on their land in the
way of mortgages or rates.
• The title will be burdened with a covenant. and
the contract between the homeowner and
government will use existing contract law.

12. No more rates due
• Then the revenue will be shared with local
government and there will be no more rates
due on that property. Each party stands to gain.

13. What about zoning?
• Every site is government by zoning.There
are certain permitted uses for any site -
residential, commercial, industrial and rural.
And within residential the zoning will
determine how many storeys can be built.
• The easier it is for land owners to develop it
and produce an income, the higher the
ground rent should be.

14. What about land
banking?
• Those who sit on vacant land waiting for it
to rise in value will eventually have to pay a
land fee, which will force them to put the
land on the market or develop it to get
income.
• Landbanking and land speculation will stop.

15. Would the land fee go
up?
• A land rental index would be established by
taking a sample of properties in an area and
finding the ground rental average and putting this
at 100.
• Each year the land rent would be adjusted. The
index would only go up if there was new
infrastructure, the arrival of significant new
business, or the zoning was changed to allow
more freedom to develop. Very little change!
usually.

16. How would it stop land
banking?
• Speculators who bought land outside a city
boundary would be paying a low rental while
the land was not zoned for residential.
• As soon as the boundary extended, their
rental would rise.This would incentivise
them to develop without getting unearned
gain in their land value.

17. Give us an example
• A couple wanted to buy land and build. The
land is worth $300,000 so Treasury pays the
300,000 in Tax Credits and this is given to
vendor. Mortgage rates would be say 5.6%.
Rates $1000
• The buyers then negotiate to pay $15800
plus $1000= $16,800 less 10% = $15, 270 in
land rent annually. Savings $1530 a year.

18. If you opt in you save

19. Mortgage with Kiwibank
• The land part of our mortgage is $400,000
at 6.2% we are paying on our land or
$24,800 and our rates are $2800 a year.
Total $27,600 a year on our property.
• We negotiate a land fee of $24,840 a year,
saving $2760 a year.

20. It’s a win-win-win
• Property owners win, so do central
government and local government. Only the
banks lose. The new Tax Credits circulate in
the economy and end up being paid for tax.
The government then re-dates these digital
credits.

21. What would happen to those
Tax Credits?
• Those with mortgages with Kiwibank could use
them to reduce their mortgage.(Possibly also
TSB, Co-operative Bank, SBS etc)
• If the land was bought directly from a vendor,
the vendor could use them in the normal way
as they are acceptable for taxes, student loans
and other government services.They can pay
their rates in it for another property or spend
it in the economy.

22. New Economics Party
• This slide show has been developed by
Deirdre Kent of the New Economics Party
of New Zealand
• Enquiries info@neweconomics.net.nz
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