Plummeting rates of home ownership are another sign of a worsening inequality situation in New Zealand. The latest figures from AC Nielsen research (detailed in The Press and NZ Herald) show that in the last 12 months alone, home ownership has dropped by 12%. Owning your own home is increasingly hard as the vast majority of people's income's struggle to keep up with the rising cost of living and buying a home. This has got much worse while Labour have been in government.
Home ownership when Labour came to power in 1999 was 74%. It dropped to 68% in 2001. By 2005 it was down 50%, and the latest statistics put it at 44%. In NZ's biggest city, Auckland, it has plummeted in the last year by 26% or 95,138 people.