Haves and have-nots

The headline on the front page (Jan 11) that the increase in house prices was ‘‘a disturbing trend for anyone hoping to buy’’ is one that we have been reading now for some time.

The latest valuations from the council would persuade the owners of a decrepit cottage in the Aro Valley that they are millionaires. Valuations have doubled in the last four years.

We now have a country where those on low or medium incomes, or do not have assistance from property-owning parents, are shut out from the property market.

Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-first Century outlined how there has been a transfer of wealth to owners of capital around the world.

With no inheritance or capital gains taxes to curb this capital accumulation, we are inexorably moving towards a society of the haves and have-nots.

John Whitty, Aro Valley