9. Housing Affordability—First-home Buyers and Foreign Ownership of New Zealand PropertiesPHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū) to the Minister for Building and ConstructionHousing Affordability—First-home Buyers and Foreign Ownership of New Zealand Properties9. PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū) to the Minister for Building and Construction: Does he think the number of sales to first-home buyers in Auckland falling to the lowest level in 12 years is a problem of success"?Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for Building and Construction): No. The proportion of first-home buyers both in Auckland and nationally has been increasing since this Government's KiwiSaver HomeStart scheme was announced in 2014. I also note that the proportion of home sales to first-home buyers according to CoreLogic is currently 21 percent nationally. That is actually better than when we became the Government in 2008.Phil Twyford: Does he agree with Quotable Value that lending restrictions have meant "Cash buyers purchasing property in New Zealand from overseas often have the advantage over New Zealanders"; if so why is he content for New Zealand first-home buyers to be at the back of the queue?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Quite the opposite. It is this Government that has introduced the most generous scheme for first-home buyers where we have seen through KiwiSaver HomeStart the amount of support grow from $200 million a year to this last year $600 million and the HomeStart grants increase by treble to over 15000 young New Zealanders helped into their first home under the most generous scheme that has been offered in a generation.Phil Twyford: Supplementary question.Mr SPEAKER: Supplementary question Metiria Turei. Oh sorry—Phil Twyford. Supplementary—Phil Twyford.Phil Twyford: We all look the same Mr Speaker. Does he think it is reasonable after 9 years of his Government being in office to expect first-home buyers to take out a $500000 mortgage just to buy an entry-level home in Auckland today?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: That is why this Government is working so hard to grow housing supply and why I am so dumbfounded that today the members opposite are going to oppose new housing in Point England why they oppose housing in Hobsonville why they have opposed houses in Māngere and why they have opposed houses in Three Kings. I just do not get how he has got the audacity then to complain that there are not enough houses being built.Phil Twyford: Does he agree with Andrea Rush of Quotable Value who says: "because the Government does not accurately measure the number of residential sales to foreign buyers there was no way of knowing what share of sales were going to those offshore." and why after all these years is the Government still not gathering accurate data on foreign buyers?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: With the legislative changes that this Government made last year we have better information on the number of houses that are being purchased by those that are tax resident offshore. The problem for Mr Twyford after his Chinese-sounding name debacle is that the numbers are so small and his embarrassment is so great that he now wants to invent some other set of numbers to try to justify his Chinese-sounding name debacle. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order!Phil Twyford: So in light of that answer if the Government's data on foreign buyers is so good why does Quotable Value say that it is not gathering accurate data on foreign buyers?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: We have absolutely accurate data on the number right down to the very last number of the number of tax resident overseas buyers. The number is so intifely small that it is even less then the number of foreign-paid slave workers that the Labour Party has recruited—Mr SPEAKER: Order! No; I do not think we need to go there. [Interruption] Order! [Interruption] Grant Robertson will stand withdraw and apologise for that interjection.Grant Robertson: I am not prepared to withdraw and apologise. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order!Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. In the Minister's answer he described something as being "intifely" small. Now that is not a word I understand and he is maybe swearing; I want to get it cleared up.Mr SPEAKER: And that is not a point of order."