4. Question No. 4—FinanceHon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green) to the Minister of FinanceQuestion No. 4—Finance4. Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green) to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by his statement that What we are committed to is making sure that houses are more affordable"; if so does the Government have a position on what ratio of median house price to median household income would mean we have affordable housing in Aotearoa?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): I do stand by my previous statements. Given the multiple factors that determine both house price changes and income growth I don't want to put a single number on what the right ratio is but I am clear that it is important that we continue to see incomes lift and we do not see the unsustainable house price rises that we have seen in recent times.Hon Julie Anne Genter: What rate of income growth and what rate of house price growth does he think is realistic?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: As I said in my primary answer we do want to see wages increase and we have seen wages increase under this Government and that is important. We will continue to push on that. We have information that comes to us via Budget forecasts about where Treasury thinks that will go and it's been in the order of 3 percent to 4 percent recently. We want to keep that going as much as we can. In terms of the house price rises we will have to see how this package lands but we are confident that it will lead to a stopping of the unsustainable house price growth that we've seen. But that's why we can't give an exact figure because we haven't yet seen where the package will land.Hon Julie Anne Genter: Can he confirm that when the Government says we need sustained moderate growth in house prices it's saying we need to wait decades if we have 4 percent increases in incomes to get back to the level of affordability that we had in 2001?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: No. The phrase "sustained moderation" is one that we have used to highlight the fact that we cannot continue with unsustainable house price rises in the 20 percent area. On the other side of the coin we also know that for most New Zealanders their home—their family home; the only home they own—is their primary asset and we do not want to undermine the value of that to an extent that would actually lead to further economic shocks to the country.Hon Julie Anne Genter: Does he disagree with the New Zealand Herald editorial which says "House prices need to fall—and sooner rather than later"?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: As we've said many times our goal here is to stop the unsustainable house price rises that we have seen. We know—all New Zealanders know—that the situation over the last year does mean that we are seeing first-home buyers locked out. We have announced a package of initiatives that will make sure that things are more affordable but also we have to recognise that this is a big complex longstanding challenge that will require sustained action in order to be able to achieve more affordable homes for New Zealanders.Hon Julie Anne Genter: So if as he hopes house prices don't fall from where they are right now and incomes continue to grow at an elevated rate of 4 percent a year is his Government happy that it will take at least half a century to get back to the affordability we had in 2001?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The point that I'm making is that houses prices and where they go are the function of a number of factors some of which the Government has some control of some of which the Government does not have control of. So it's not in my view fair to characterise it in the way that the member did. What we are working towards is an environment where first-home buyers get a fair go where we make sure that we encourage investment in new builds where we make sure that we do have an environment where renters can live in warm dry safe housing. All of those things will take time. I acknowledge that but I wouldn't characterise our policy the way that the member has.Hon Julie Anne Genter: Does he consider affordable housing in terms of both house prices and rent to be a human right?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Sorry I just missed the end of that.Hon Julie Anne Genter: Does he consider affordable housing both in terms of rent and house prices to be a human right?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I certainly believe that—on behalf of this Government we believe that—every New Zealander should be able to live in a warm dry safe and affordable home."