Latest news with #KiwiBuild
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Failed New Zealand scheme is cautionary tale for Carney's homebuilding agency: report
OTTAWA — Researchers with the Montreal Economic Institute say Canada's new federal homebuilding agency is likely to overpromise and underdeliver, drawing a cautionary tale from down under. The free-market think tank argues in a new study that New Zealand's now-defunct homebuilding scheme KiwiBuild, a signature policy of Jacinda Ardern's Labour government, shows why government bureaucrats shouldn't try to play real estate developer. 'New Zealand's experience highlights the limits of government intervention in the real estate market, especially in terms of resource allocation,' write co-authors Gabriel Giguère, Yassine Benabid and Renaud Brossard. Brossard told the National Post he was struck by the similarities between KiwiBuild and the Liberal government's Build Canada Homes. 'If you look at government programs that have been done throughout the world, this is probably the closest thing to what (Prime Minister) Mark Carney's pitching,' said Brossard. KiwiBuild launched in 2018 with the lofty goal of building 100,000 affordable housing units in a decade. It would never come anywhere near meeting this target, completing just 2,389 units by the end of its last full year of activity in 2024. The program was slammed by both politicians and pundits as a 'complete disaster', contributing to Ardern's fall from global progressive darling to her abrupt resignation in early 2023. By one estimate, KiwiBuild would have taken 436 years to hit the original target of 100,000 homes. Brossard said that one critical mistake that KiwiBuild administrators made was relying too heavily on prefabricated homes. 'In some of the areas where they were hoping to build homes for (KiwiBuild), they found that shipping in a prefab home was actually more expensive than just building one in situ,' said Brossard. Carney has promised billions in subsidies to prefabricated and modular home builders, as part of his plan to double the rate of housing construction and build 500,000 new homes a year within a decade. Brossard and his co-authors report that KiwiBuild's prefab homes were often inferior to other housing options available to low and moderate-income families. Some banks were even hesitant to approve mortgages for the prefab homes, given the 'flight risk' involved where delinquents could theoretically load the units onto a truck bed and skip town. Brossard says that the big lesson from KiwiBuild is that civil servants should leave the nuts and bolts of real estate development to the professionals. 'This is what tends to happen with top-down government programs that push one-size-fits-all solutions,' said Brossard. The study recommends that Carney scrap Build Canada Homes and instead focus on creating a friendlier regulatory environment for private real estate developers. Brossard also said that policymakers can stimulate homebuilders by harmonizing professional qualifications for workers in the building trades across provinces and territories. The office of federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson didn't respond when asked about KiwiBuild by the National Post. National Post Gary Berman: Common-sense solutions to address the housing shortage Developer makes his pitch: Renting our way out of the Canadian housing crisis Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.
Vancouver Sun
2 days ago
- Business
- Vancouver Sun
Failed New Zealand scheme is cautionary tale for Carney's homebuilding agency: report
OTTAWA — Researchers with the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) say Canada's new federal homebuilding agency is likely to overpromise and underdeliver, drawing a cautionary tale from down under. The free-market think tank argues in a new study that New Zealand's now-defunct homebuilding scheme KiwiBuild, a signature policy of Jacinda Ardern's Labour government, shows why government bureaucrats shouldn't try to play real estate developer. 'New Zealand's experience highlights the limits of government intervention in the real estate market, especially in terms of resource allocation,' write co-authors Gabriel Giguère, Yassine Benabid and Renaud Brossard. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Brossard told the National Post he was struck by the similarities between KiwiBuild and the Liberal government's Build Canada Homes. 'If you look at government programs that have been done through out the world, this is probably the closest thing to what (Prime Minister) Mark Carney's pitching,' said Brossard. KiwiBuild launched in 2018 with the lofty goal of building 100,000 affordable housing units in a decade. It would never come anywhere near meeting this target, completing just 2,389 units by the end of its last full year of activity in 2024. The program was slammed by both politicians and pundits as a 'complete disaster' , contributing to Ardern's fall from global progressive darling to her abrupt resignation in early 2023. By one estimate, KiwiBuild would have taken 436 years to hit the original target of 100,000 homes. Brossard said that one critical mistake that KiwiBuild administrators made was relying too heavily on prefabricated homes. 'In some of the areas where they were hoping to build homes for (KiwiBuild), they found that shipping in a prefab home was actually more expensive than just building one in situ,' said Brossard. Carney has promised billions in subsidies to prefabricated and modular home builders, as part of his plan to double the rate of housing construction and build 500,000 new homes a year within a decade. Brossard and his co-authors report that KiwiBuild's prefab homes were often inferior to other housing options available to low and moderate-income families. Some banks were even hesitant to approve mortgages for the prefab homes, given the 'flight risk' involved where delinquents could theoretically load the units onto a truck bed and skip town. Brossard says that the big lesson from KiwiBuild is that civil servants shouldn't moonlight as real estate developers. 'This is what tends to happen with top-down government programs that push one-size-fits-all solutions,' said Brossard. The study recommends that Carney scrap Build Canada Homes and instead focus on creating a friendlier regulatory environment for private real estate developers. Brossard also said that policymakers can stimulate homebuilders by harmonizing professional qualifications for workers in the building trades across provinces and territories. The office of federal Housing Minister Gregor Robertson didn't respond when asked about KiwiBuild by the National Post. National Post Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
Edmonton Journal
2 days ago
- Business
- Edmonton Journal
Failed New Zealand scheme is cautionary tale for Carney's homebuilding agency: report
Article content OTTAWA — Researchers with the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) say Canada's new federal homebuilding agency is likely to overpromise and underdeliver, drawing a cautionary tale from down under. The free-market think tank argues in a new study that New Zealand's now-defunct homebuilding scheme KiwiBuild, a signature policy of Jacinda Ardern's Labour government, shows why government bureaucrats shouldn't try to play real estate developer.
Calgary Herald
2 days ago
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Failed New Zealand scheme is cautionary tale for Carney's homebuilding agency: report
OTTAWA — Researchers with the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) say Canada's new federal homebuilding agency is likely to overpromise and underdeliver, drawing a cautionary tale from down under. Article content The free-market think tank argues in a new study that New Zealand's now-defunct homebuilding scheme KiwiBuild, a signature policy of Jacinda Ardern's Labour government, shows why government bureaucrats shouldn't try to play real estate developer. Article content Article content Article content 'New Zealand's experience highlights the limits of government intervention in the real estate market, especially in terms of resource allocation,' write co-authors Gabriel Giguère, Yassine Benabid and Renaud Brossard. Article content Article content Brossard told the National Post he was struck by the similarities between KiwiBuild and the Liberal government's Build Canada Homes. Article content 'If you look at government programs that have been done through out the world, this is probably the closest thing to what (Prime Minister) Mark Carney's pitching,' said Brossard. Article content KiwiBuild launched in 2018 with the lofty goal of building 100,000 affordable housing units in a decade. It would never come anywhere near meeting this target, completing just 2,389 units by the end of its last full year of activity in 2024. Article content The program was slammed by both politicians and pundits as a 'complete disaster', contributing to Ardern's fall from global progressive darling to her abrupt resignation in early 2023. Article content Article content By one estimate, KiwiBuild would have taken 436 years to hit the original target of 100,000 homes. Article content Brossard said that one critical mistake that KiwiBuild administrators made was relying too heavily on prefabricated homes. Article content 'In some of the areas where they were hoping to build homes for (KiwiBuild), they found that shipping in a prefab home was actually more expensive than just building one in situ,' said Brossard. Article content Carney has promised billions in subsidies to prefabricated and modular home builders, as part of his plan to double the rate of housing construction and build 500,000 new homes a year within a decade. Article content Brossard and his co-authors report that KiwiBuild's prefab homes were often inferior to other housing options available to low and moderate-income families.
Newsroom
04-06-2025
- Business
- Newsroom
Jacinda, by Janet Wilson
Nothing better explains the polarising opinions that crop up about Aotearoa's 40th Prime Minister, the Right Hon Dame Jacinda Ardern, than a phenomenon psychologists call splitting. It's a form of black-and-white thinking in which the patient sums up a person as either an exalted angel or an evil wrongdoer. And if both groups are looking to confirm their biases – the Greek Chorus of devotees and the Baying Crowd of haters – they're bound to find ample ammunition in Ardern's new memoir, A Different Kind of Power. In her 15 years as a politician, six as Prime Minister, Ardern has always been a master at framing-up all the feels. Many of her Greek Chorus don't reside here but are examples of the kind of progressive elites CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios's Alex Thompson inventory in another recent Penguin publication, Original Sin: President Biden's decline, its cover-up and his disastrous choice to run again. Their lavish praise is spread unctuously on the book's first page, accompanied by names like Melinda French Gates (Bill's ex), actress Natalie Portman, and Ben Rhodes, who was Obama's speechwriter. It signals the book wasn't written with the New Zealand market in mind but for all those progressives in the Northern Hemisphere who exulted in Ardern's considerable wins, such as her handling of the Christchurch Mosque shootings, the Whakaari/White Island disaster, her successful Covid-19 shut down of the country in 2020, and the political qualities of kindness she espouses. Ardern has always been the queen of identity politics. She turns her beliefs into full-blown convictions that you're either onside with, or absolutely not. It's revealing that issues outside of that, for example the broken promise to build 100,000 KiwiBuild properties, receive scant attention in her book. Instead, her memoir indexes the life of a thin-skinned and sensitive kid who channelled her impostor syndrome and, jet-propelled with considerable amounts of determination, became the leader of the Opposition amid the 2017 election campaign. And it's here that Ardern, a priestess of presenting just-enough information at the right time, seems to be sharing the PG-version of events. Ardern contends that with polling at 23 per cent, it was Opposition Leader Andrew Little who declared he should stand down and she should take over as leader. Her version of events is that she told him that a leadership change only months out from election day was a bad idea– but nevertheless walked into the Legislative Chamber Council six days later to tell media she had been elected leader unanimously. According to Ardern, when Little informed caucus he was resigning and immediately nominated Ardern, the only ripple of discontent came from a colleague who shouted, 'This is fucked!' As a bystander of not one but two leadership changes in National Party ranks three years later, I rather think this ignores the fact that there would have been several MPs in the caucus at that time who were facing certain electoral annihilation and would be shouting that from the rooftops. 'This is fucked' wouldn't begin to explain their rage. At any rate the Age of Jacindamania was born, and the gamble paid off. But politics is a zero-sum game. You enjoy some success until, eventually, you lose. Covid-19 presented leaders around the world with a once-in-a-lifetime challenge–and in the first year it arrived on Aotearoa's shores, Ardern shone. Her March 2020 announcement of the first lockdown was a masterclass in call-to-arms speeches. By and large the country's population of just over five million rallied. 'We began a new phase,' she writes in A Different Kind of Power. 'Long stretches of normalcy punctuated by the occasional raising of the alert level.' By the end of that year Labour had won more than 50 per cent of the vote in the October election, and the country was enjoying a summer of festivals and barbecues. Fast forward to just over a year later to February 2022 when Ardern's zero-sum game reached its nadir. Because if 2020 was where she excelled, 2021 was the year where the mistakes piled up, layer upon layer upon layer. First the then-Government was too slow to order vaccines. Then it gave the Rapid Antigen Testing contract not to a provider with a track record but an outfit who didn't even have one. By December 2021, Auckland had been in a different lockdown from the rest of the country for three months, and many, many Aucklanders were fed up. Not that Ardern mentions anything about this. But she does talk about her nadir – the Parliamentary Protests. Ardern describes the antics of the growing crowd protesting the vaccines and mandates wearing their tinfoil hats, and provides readers with her own explanation of why she didn't greet the crowds. She writes, 'How could I send a message that if you disagree with something, you can illegally occupy the grounds of Parliament and then have your demands met? No, I would not meet the protestors.' She goes on to say the occupation 'was about trust…. or more accurately mistrust.' That mistrust rose, biliously, from a fed-up nation. Less than a year later Ardern announced she was stepping down as Prime Minister and leaving politics. Ardern's analysis of getting to that point is an interesting mix of her analytical head and her sensitive heart. She discusses leaving politics with Grant Robertson, as well as her Chief of Staff Raj Nahna, telling him that she'd become a flashpoint, 'a political lightning rod.' But it was also daughter Neve asking, 'Mummy, why do you have to work so much?' It had 'got to the heart of my dilemma, and that of parents everywhere.' It's too early yet to assess Ardern's political leadership skills except to note it was an administration of striking highs and lows. Her own book doesn't attempt to make an assessment. It's less a political memoir than another sprinkling of Jacinda fairy stardust to her adoring Greek Chorus of devotees. The Baying Crowd will read it too, just to confirm their bias, and to sneer. Her book has landed at a time when politics, in New Zealand and across the world, is taking a particularly cruel turn. The New York Times characterised it this week as 'the death of empathy'. Will progressive liberals take A Different Kind of Power – Ardern is their posterchild after all – and use it as their talisman to lead them out of electoral darkness? Probably not, but expect the virtue signalling to continue unabated. A Different Kind of Power: A Memoir by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin, $59.99) is available in every bookstore across the land. ReadingRoom is devoting all week to coverage of the book. Monday: experts in the book trade predict it will fly off the shelves. Tuesday: a review by Steve Braunias. Tomorrow: a review by Tim Murphy.
