The erosion of the great Kiwi bach

The ham-fisted imprecision revealed today that could see bach owners stung under a new government policy where they will be liable for higher mortgage rates, capital gains taxes and stricter borrowing restrictions, is absolutely typical of the government’s failure to come to grips with our housing crisis.

Sure, those without the fortune of owning their own slice of coastal paradise won’t care a jot.

The unique Kiwi tradition of bach ownership is one that, like home ownership, is now far beyond the average Kiwi who isn’t fortunate enough to have the lineage that offers them a share of a shack in Coopers Beach or Whitianga.

But pursuing a bloke who has the misfortune to own both his own home and a holiday getaway in Tutukaka is not even part of the answer to our housing crisis, and everyone knows it.

The new rules do have some merit.

They appear designed to capture the landlords who, to the great frustration of those locked out of home ownership, ‘‘own’’ strings of houses, each leveraged off the last, and get rich through no endeavour of their own. No endeavour, that is, beyond possessing the faith that house prices will rise forever.

There’s no benefit to anybody bar these speculators in allowing this behaviour to continue untrammelled and the government should be grabbing a share of their undeserved fortune.

Preying upon bach owners with the same piece of legislation seems somewhat unfair.

There would be few baches that deliver a real commercial return to their owners, and many have been passed through the generations, handed down with a rich oral history of family holidays, and their value is way beyond what their present owners could afford if they were buying now.

Thanks to our rocketing home prices, even the consolation prize of a weekend escape is denied those who sit on the sidelines in the great housing boom – and that’s a shame.

There are few tools available to the government to calm the housing boom, but this one is so inexact it’s like using a shovel to dig a hole for a potted flower.