Property - Chris Laidlaw, National Radio, 05/03/06

Many New Zealanders have a strong interest in the property market. It is and has been for a long time now, a traditional focal point of investment and pride for the average citizen. We could almost call home / bach ownership a cultural must among the middle class. Naturally, the media have sought to capitalise on this strong national phenomenon. Nothing wrong with that. It's an issue dear to most people's hearts and one that deserves to be discussed openly and freely. The single major current issue within the realms of property revolves around high house prices. What exactly is the issue? Well, anyone who has seen New Zealand's high house prices and unfamilar with the current debate within media circles, may be forgiven for thinking the issue is that they are too high. Obviously, increasing higher house prices mean less and less people can afford their own housing. Yet, the media has instead decided to focus on the potential dread of falling house prices and what can be done to at the very least maintain and at the best push prices up further. Now, let me re-iterate, there is nothing wrong framing the debate this way within this context. The problem is that the media do so exclusively. To the point of this post. Chris Laidlaw's Sunday Group on the weekend is a prime example of the media continuing to frame the debate within a narrow bias context. In the panel discussing property prices were Olly Newland, Property Investor; Graham Crews, Ex-Real Estate Agent and Former Property Lecturer; and Martin Dunn, Real Estate Agent (City Sales Ltd.) So before the discussion even begins we have an inherent bias in the panel. The framework of the debate immediately favours investors and property holders. Needless to say, true to that assumption the discussion that followed was framed almost exclusively along those lines. Most of the talk revolved around securement of property investments and the rates of investment returns. Debate surrounding the benefits of lower property prices was pretty much non-existent. Brief discussion of an increasing discrepancies between income and property prices, were met with calls that New Zealanders just have to get used to renting. The panel then went along to have a discussion about why legislation around renting needs to be overhauled in favour of landlords (or shall we say investors). I shan't go on. This bias was evident throughout the entire discussion. The debate couldn't avoid this path however because of the framework that was already pre-established for it. The panel should have been made of individuals with wider varying perspectives. What about getting a someone to speak on behalf of non-home owners, those single home owners with a large mortage, or anyone who didn't have some sort of interest or bias that made them favour higher house prices? If discussion surrounding the property market in the media is to be more open, informative and objective, the entire scope of the debate needs widening. Individuals who aren't property investors deserve to have their opinions and ideas aired aswell. (I will be framing my posts in accordance with articles/broadcasts, rather than particular issues. But since I don't have anything else to refer to yet, here are two article in the print media that support my above assertion. This one at the NZ Herald and this one at stuff. Both frame property stories with a bias towards those with interests in higher property prices.)