Cunliffe David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to MembersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCunliffe David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members[Sitting date: 09 April 2014. Volume:697;Page:17035. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]1.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Leader of the Opposition)to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by his statement that “housing is always a big issue because people need to own a home or frankly in most cases a lot of people want to own a home”?Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister):Yes. The Government does not want to see house prices double. That would be shocking because that happened under the period from November 1999 to November 2008.Hon Member: Did it?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Yes they doubled; they doubled in that time and that significantly had a big impact on homeownership. That is why for example we signed the housing accord with the Auckland Council which will see 39000 new sections and dwellings consented over 3 years. That is why for example we are also focused on another important area of affordability which is interest rates. We would not want to see interest rates go back to 11 percent as they did under the previous Government.Hon David Cunliffe: When the Prime Minister said that the main problem in Auckland’s housing market was a lack of supply because not enough homes had been built in the last 3 to 4 years what responsibility does he take for that?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The Government itself does not for the most part actually build homes and the consenting for homes in Auckland is the responsibility of local government. But what the Government has done is a few things and that is to ensure that special housing areas can now be fast tracked in Auckland so that houses can be consented and houses can be built. But—Hon Member: A failed policy.Rt Hon JOHN KEY: —I know failure when I see it. It is a doubling of house prices and interest rates at 11 percent. It is called a Labour Government.Hon David Cunliffe: Is he concerned that the latest BNZ-REINZ Residential Market Survey indicates that 2750 New Zealand homes and 12 percent of all Auckland homes sold were sold to non-resident offshore buyers in the year to February 2014; if not why is he not concerned?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Firstly the member needs to be very careful because many of those offshore buyers may well be New Zealanders. Secondly they could be Australians which by the way Labour seems to have exempted from its policy whatever its particular policy is. But let me make this simple point: if you look at the numbers supplied by Tony Alexander in terms of his monthly survey of real estate agents what he says—Rt Hon Winston Peters: He’s got no numbers.Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Well I actually reckon he does not have much in the way of numbers. But if we go to them he says that 6.4 percent of dwellings sold in March this year were considered to be from people from offshore. But when you take out those who are Australians and those who are legitimately moving to New Zealand actually it comes down to 2 percent that are considered in that category. When you look at the sellers who are offshore interestingly enough he says that the net sales and the net purchases are about equal—in other words the number is zero. So we should quote the oracle of all this information Tony Alexander when he says that the implication is that there could be close to zero net transfers of New Zealand homeownership occurring to offshore investors.Hon David Cunliffe: If the Prime Minister thinks that it is all about Australians is he concerned that the new website statistics show that New Zealand is among the top 10 most searched for countries by Chinese house hunters; if not why not?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: There may be many reasons why Chinese nationals are looking at New Zealand. For the most part it will be because it is such a well-governed country under National.Hon David Cunliffe: Does he agree with the two-thirds of New Zealanders who say that there should be restrictions on offshore speculators buying Kiwi homes; if not why not?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: When it comes to speculation of homes in New Zealand they would be subject to a capital gains tax. That is the reality. Secondly if the member is talking about his policy which seems to be banning foreigners unless they are Australians then as I pointed out earlier the sales that fit into that category are next to zero. Interestingly enough why bother with the theoretical? Let us go to the practical. Australia actually has that system and by the way even with that system the number of sales to foreigners in total was more than those in New Zealand.Hon David Cunliffe: Will the Prime Minister now commit to supporting Labour’s capital gains tax; if not why is he standing by while young Kiwi first-home buyers are outbid by foreign telephone bidders using cheap foreign money to buy up New Zealand houses—for example like the more than a dozen overseas phone sales witnessed by Auckland real estate agent Adam Wang?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The member is asking me whether I am going to support a capital gains tax on every small business in New Zealand and every hard-working farmer in New Zealand and whether we are going to support a capital gains tax in an area that is already in existence. It is already on speculators. If the member does not know that he does not know anything.