Housing

Labour wants to ban foreign speculators from buying New Zealand homes and make property buyers who resell houses within five years pay tax on any capital gains earned — up from the current two years.

The party has set a highly ambitious target of building 100,000 affordable homes over 10 years, 50 per cent of those in Auckland. Standalone houses in Auckland, the party says, will cost between $ 500,000 and $ 600,000 while apartments and townhouses will be less than $ 500,000. Outside Auckland, houses will range from $ 300,000 to $ 500,000.

For renters, Labour will increase the 42 day notice period to 90 days, ban letting fees and limit rent increases to once a year instead of the current half year period.

National says it will build 34,000 homes in Auckland over the next 10 years, 13,500 of these will be social homes and 20,500 “affordable and market homes”. The party says between 20 and 50 per cent of homes in the latter category would be affordable homes under $ 650,000.

However, 8600 existing homes would be demolished in order to make way for National’s new builds. It is not clear how many homes would be knocked down to make way for Labour’s 100,000 new homes.

National will also make it easier for first home buyers to get a deposit by doubling the financial support available when buying an existing house. This means a couple will be eligible for an extra $ 10,000 of Government HomeStart Grants, taking the grants to $ 20,000 for an existing home or $ 30,000 for a new build.