Twyford Phil: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTwyford Phil: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 07 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3307. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]5.PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū)to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by his statement that determining who is foreign for the purposes of restricting residential property ownership by foreign speculators is a “swamp”?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance):Yes.Phil Twyford: Why has he ruled out restricting the purchase of existing homes to New Zealand citizens and residents given that Australia Canada and Singapore have all enacted such policies or similar restrictions or is it that these successful nations are just xenophobic?Hon BILL ENGLISH: No. I would note that all of them have more intensive house price cycles than we do for a start and secondly actually observation of those systems shows just how difficult it is to determine and enforce this type of measure. But you know we are gradually picking our way through the swamp.Phil Twyford: Is he aware that the state of Victoria Australia now has a jail sentence for foreign speculators who rort its homeownership rules and given that ANZ data shows that in New South Wales and Victoria foreign speculators account for between 25 percent and 30 percent of purchases why has he repeatedly refused to even collect the data here?Mr SPEAKER: The Hon Bill English—either of those two supplementary questions.Hon BILL ENGLISH: I think that the member has just highlighted the problem. They have had rules in Australia that foreigners cannot buy existing houses and they have got data that shows that 35 percent of house sales are to foreign buyers. The reason they are bringing in prison sentences is that they have not been able to enforce the law and now they are trying to scare the wits out of foreigners who have been getting round the law on a large scale.Phil Twyford: Why does his speculator-friendly Government deny that demand pressure caused by property speculation is contributing to skyrocketing house prices in Auckland when the Reserve Bank thinks that speculation-driven demand is a threat to financial stability or is it wrong too?Hon BILL ENGLISH: In fact the Government set up a memorandum of understanding with the Reserve Bank which is enforcing macro-prudential measures in a way that they are not doing in Australia and with some success. The Government keeps an eye on how these other jurisdictions are dealing with the pressure of overseas capital. Looking at those systems shows how complex it is and that is why we are picking our way carefully through the swamp.Metiria Turei: Will the Minister rule out selling State houses such as those that are soon to be on the block in Invercargill Tauranga and elsewhere to non-resident foreign buyers?Hon BILL ENGLISH: We have not put in any such rule but they would have to be registered as a community housing provider and as far as we know there are none of that sort that have registered. We are very pleased to be able to proceed with those transactions because I think we can get a better deal for tenants and give the opportunity for those communities to redevelop parts of their housing stock and except for the Greens and the Labour Party everyone else in New Zealand thinks we can do a better job with State housing.Metiria Turei: Can the Minister then confirm that he intends to place no restrictions at all on a non-resident foreign buyer organisation registering as a community housing provider in New Zealand for the purpose of purchasing State housing?Hon BILL ENGLISH: No there are not restrictions just as in the same way in our register of charities we do not restrict global lobby groups like Greenpeace which is another foreign multinational that tries to impose its views on New Zealand.Metiria Turei: Can the Minister rule out State houses that are sold by this Government such as those in Invercargill and Tauranga being sold on at a later date and not therefore being used for social housing?Hon BILL ENGLISH: No not only are we not ruling it out but we do not want to rule it out because part of the thing that needs to change in our State housing—and the Greens might have missed this; the population is different from what it was in 1950 when we built thousands of three-bedroom houses for two-parent households with three to five children. Now a quarter of all New Zealand children are born into a sole-parent household. The fastest-growing category of households in New Zealand is the single-person household. The Greens and the Labour Party are the only ones who seem to think that that bit of New Zealand life should be frozen in 1950. We disagree and we are proud to disagree and we are going to make rules that ensure it changes.Metiria Turei: I seek leave to table a letter to Housing New Zealand tenants dated 6 May 2015 that assures them they will remain in social housing.Mr SPEAKER: Leave is sought to table that particular letter. Is there any objection? There is no objection. It can be tabled.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.