If a government minister slips the same line, verbatim, into two high profile speeches across two months, then there is really not much easter left in the egg.
So when Housing Minister Chris Bishop said, in front of the LGNZ conference and the WCC, “Fixing the housing crisis will help grow the economy by directing investment away from property,” his positioning couldn’t be clearer: The government is done building policy around property investors’ spreadsheets. And if reading that makes you uncomfortable, good. Discomfort may very well be what you need to drive positive action.
Capital Gain Isn’t Strategy
For the longest time, capital gain has been sold as a feature of property investment. It is the golden goose at the end of the tunnel that makes weekly cash top-ups tolerable. All the while, inflation, rental income, (diminishing but persistent) tax efficiency and planning gridlock quietly compounded in the background, inflating balance sheets and egos alike.
What if it is less of a feature and more of a bug? What if it is just the spoils of a flawed system that rations supply? What if investors are less Bugs Bunny and more Wile E. Coyote? 
And if you feel yourself being suspended mid-air, legs spinning, waiting for policy reversal. Sorry, it ain’t coming. At least not when Chris is in charge.
For the record, I’m personally aligned with the direction the Minister is setting. Excessive capital gain, borne off the back of a flawed, constricted system that rewards time-served over ingenuity, productivity or risk, is at the heart of some of our deepest social fractures. I’m thinking of the growing divide between wage earners and asset holders, populist politics that...
