For those who like to equate Govts with households when they talk about debt: the Govt could borrow $400b to build 800,000 houses at $500k each if the current costs of accommodation supplements and income related rent relief of $4b a year was used to service the debt.

For those who tell renters to use their rent to instead pay interest on a mortgage and buy/build their own homes: they should tell the Govt to use the rent subsidies helping poor families pay rent now to instead service debt to build enough houses to improve affordability for all

A programme over 20 years (because we could easily borrow at fixed low rates in NZ$ for such 20 year terms) to borrow even $200b to build 400,000 houses would be much better value for the $4b currently being spent by the Govt paying rent subsidies to deal with a housing shortage

Setting a believable expectation of such a supply shock would be more than enough to stop house price inflation in its tracks. It would also underwrite a massively productivity-enhancing restructuring of our house building sector and replace an ageing and unhealthy building stock

It would also ensure we deal with continued population growth from migration without the endemic infrastructure shortages we're currently suffering. Does anyone really believe that migration will slow down after the borders open? If anything, it will increase.