It is clear that the Government’s housing package announced last March has failed after figures released by Trade Me today show the largest ever annual increase in house prices, National’s Housing spokesperson Nicola Willis says.

The Trade Me Property Price Index released today shows that in the year to December, the national average asking price went up by 25 per cent, the largest increase on record.

“When the Government announced their housing package last March, they promised it would ‘tilt the balance towards first home buyers’. Instead, their policies have achieved the exact opposite, with housing affordability at record lows and house prices at record highs,” Ms Willis says.

“With Labour’s new package of taxes introduced last year, growing interest rates, heavy-handed new credit regulations, and the state landlord bidding against first-home buyers for houses on the open market, this Government is destroying the New Zealand dream of home-ownership.

“Labour was elected on a promise to solve New Zealand’s housing crisis. Instead, by almost every measure, they have made it worse.

“National is determined to undo Labour’s housing failures. We know we won’t get there by blaming landlords or adding unnecessary taxes. Houses need to be much easier to build, and it has to be much easier for first-home buyers to get on that first rung of the property ladder.

“National believes that New Zealand can once again be a place where hardworking, aspirational, everyday people can see a path to home ownership.”