Along with an increasing number of citizens, I was proud to attend ANZAC day commemorations on Wednesday. I went to the Dawn Service at the Papatoetoe Cemetery commencing at 5.45am with the added poignancy of a soft mist enshrouding the 300 who attended. There were many little young faces in that gathering being warmed by their parents.

I then marched in both the Otara and the Papatoetoe Parades. The Otara parade had been abandoned for around 30 years, until the Community Board reinstated it in 1993. In that year we had more in the Brass Band than in the parade overall. This year 500-600 were in attendance. Most people wouldn’t be aware but ANZAC day is also hugely significant for the Pacific Island nations. This interest is certainly a primary contributor to the massive growth in numbers now participating across Manukau.

And the children shall lead It is most encouraging to see the increasing involvement of our young people as time farewells those who served in the last great war. Their presence was best symbolised this year by the delivery of key speeches at Otara and Papatoetoe by senior students from Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate, Tangaroa College and De La Salle College. Each speech was outstanding, delivered with confidence, poise and respect.

This year’s commemorations saw record attendances highlighting the great service the RSAs have provided over the decades. The Papatoetoe RSA was packed to the gunnels, and the only real inappropriate note in a superb morning was for us all to witness on the big screen, the humbling of the Black Caps in the semi-final….again!

Dannemora up-date After becoming involved in the appalling broad daylight smash and grab three weeks ago, the news is much better on the Dannemora front. The neighbourhood has got itself organised and I attended the first meeting of its new neighbourhood watch organisation on Thursday night. A good number of locals turned up and received some good news from the Police in attendance. During the previous week they had arrested five people responsible for a large number of the burglaries around Dannemora over the last three months.

This news seemed to encourage the community present and now firm plans are afoot to set up and work with the Police and Crime Watch Patrols to throw a security blanket around their streets and houses. Neighbours who have lived beside each other for months and sometimes years, met and talked to each other for the first time the other night. This simple communication is the key to making our communities safe. A crucial part of my safety strategy is to ensure we roll out the neighbourhood watch organisations across our whole city but in particular, our newer areas.

“When will I be able to afford to buy a home?” The NZ Herald editorial got it right this week. The paper responded to a report on housing affordability by noting that the issue is complex and requires local and central government to be innovative in finding solutions to help first home buyers into their own home.

As a lawyer I have acted for hundreds of people over the last five years who have been buying and selling houses in our city. There is huge pressure on prices because even though the market has softened a little over the last 18 months. Listings have also reduced and so houses all around the city are still selling flat out. The prices are therefore continuing to rise with the strong demand. For first home buyers it didn’t help that two years ago, all the “expert” economists told them not to buy because we were heading for a downturn in the property market. Many listened, held on and Manukau prices went up another 20%!

Houses, not superannuation Many who ought to know better have laid the blame for the increasing gap in housing affordability at the feet of the ARC and local councils arguing that they have not released enough land and the scarcity of supply is sending land prices sky rocketing. What this argument ignores is that there are massive land stocks coming on tap in Tuakau, Pukekohe, Waiuku, Karaka and Takanini, all now feeder suburbs for Manukau and Auckland. How can you explain the fact that with thousands of hectares opening up in these communities, the land and house prices in Tuakau and Puke in particular are comparable with those in Dannemora?

In my view what is really driving this demand is not land shortage or population increases, it is that we buy in massive numbers, housing investments for our retirement instead of saving. Many in my generation got burnt with the stock market crash of ’87 and still haven’t really trusted it to return what is required for our superannuation investments. If Roger Douglas‘s scheme hadn’t been gazzumped by Muldoon, or (God forbid) if we had all listened to Winston, we would now have a fully nationalised compulsory super scheme. It would now be doing very nicely for us all, and probably would have pumped a lot more investment into the stock market and local businesses compared with what has occurred over the last 10 years.

We’re all into land Everyone is betting their land is going to increase in value, and when cashed in, provide them with a much better return and super fund than the stock exchange. They are even prepared to take a low three to five per cent return from rentals, which is making it more attractive to rent for many, rather than own. Increasingly for many, renting is a matter of financial good sense rather than their last option.

You’ve got to start small My parents didn’t own their first home until they were well into their 30s. I started like many by owning a two bedroom unit. In our city we are now providing a huge variety of choice for first home buyers - in units, townhouses, apartments, and terraced houses. Banks are now lending to 100 per cent and once we can get rid of the scammers, there are many reputable companies providing long-term agreements to purchase homes on minimal or no deposit.

For some who are really struggling there is the hope of support from Habitat who have built many houses for people in our city over the years. I also believe that the homestart loan scheme, previously available would be a useful addition to options to improve ownership. So would borrowing some of the Australian tax incentive schemes provided for first home buyers to assist them get started.

What I wouldn’t encourage is a pre-emptive scrapping of the metropolitan urban limit in a knee jerk reaction to open up vast tracts of our green zones, on the basis of faulty analysis of what issues really drive housing affordability.

Len Brown,

Mayoral Candidate, Manukau City,2007.

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