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Speaker 1: And the Retirement Commissioner is calling for action on the

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Speaker 1: size of our new houses, with downsizing issues causing a

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Speaker 1: massive headache for retirees and older New Zealanders. Get this,

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Speaker 1: two bedroom houses make up less than twenty percent of

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Speaker 1: the new stock, one bedroom houses less than ten percent,

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Speaker 1: with new terraced housing obviously having stairs and thus being

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Speaker 1: unsuitable most of the time. Jane Writeson is the Retirement

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Speaker 1: Commissioner and is with us this evening. Kielder, Jack, how

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Speaker 1: much of an issue is this.

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Speaker 2: It's an emerging issue, is what it is. And it's

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Speaker 2: our job here at the Commission to just nudge people

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Speaker 2: to think harder about some of their future brands. I mean,

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Speaker 2: when you look at the new house builds, you can

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Speaker 2: see that we've got the three story townhouses. You can

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Speaker 2: see we've got the expense of apartments. You can see

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Speaker 2: we've got the five bedroom, five bathroom jobs a bit

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Speaker 2: further out, and none of these are particularly suitable for retirement,

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Speaker 2: particularly when you if you think you're going to fe

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Speaker 2: out for the capital, would you sell your family home.

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Speaker 1: If there is demand, why isn't their supply?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's a really good question. I think it tells

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Speaker 2: you how hard the housing market is to change, and

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Speaker 2: there may well be supply, but it may well be

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Speaker 2: a bit late. It's hard to know. I mean, there's

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Speaker 2: a big wave of people tiring over the next ten

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Speaker 2: twenty years, and as we see with all the other

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Speaker 2: issues around the housing market, it's a it's a slow burn,

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Speaker 2: that's one of them. But this is more a bit

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Speaker 2: of a wake up call just for people that are

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Speaker 2: contemplating what they'll do in the next ten or twenty years,

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Speaker 2: particularly if they're living in a house they've assumed they

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Speaker 2: would sell and pocket some capital gain, because it won't

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Speaker 2: be as easy as you think, which means thinking earlier

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Speaker 2: is a good idea.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. See, it actually benefits the whole country too, doesn't it,

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Speaker 1: Because if we have housing stocks that suits people when

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Speaker 1: you know they're getting on a little bit and they

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Speaker 1: want to downsize, then that actually potentially frees up larger

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Speaker 1: houses that they otherwise might not sell, for families and

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Speaker 1: people who have more than just two people under.

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Speaker 2: The roofs exactly.

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Speaker 1: Yet, so how do we incentivize it, How do we

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Speaker 1: get a bit more action?

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Speaker 2: I don't know how we do that other than keeping

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Speaker 2: talking about it, you know, there may be some developers

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Speaker 2: who see an opportunity here. There may be some opportunities

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Speaker 2: in government housing policy, possibly as they're freeing up our

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Speaker 2: land for new developments. You know, I know that people

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Speaker 2: generally don't like regulation in the space, but you know,

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Speaker 2: if you go to make land available for a big development,

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Speaker 2: it wouldn't be silly, would it to ensure that there

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Speaker 2: are a range of housing sizes included in that development, because.

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Speaker 1: What's the danger that people at the moment end up

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Speaker 1: overspending on those smaller houses?

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Speaker 2: Well, especially if you're wanting a late model one, you know,

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Speaker 2: because you know the dream is that you retire to

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Speaker 2: a smaller house, you don't need to do much maintenance.

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Speaker 2: It's the size that you need, and it's in a

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Speaker 2: place that is connected, that has got public transport, or

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Speaker 2: as close to a hospital or the other things that

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Speaker 2: you need. So all of these things adding up are

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Speaker 2: a bit tricky, unless, of course, your particularly well off

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Speaker 2: you can consort things out yourself. But you know the

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Speaker 2: majority of New Zealanders aren't so much. So you just

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Speaker 2: need to think harder about this and prod some of

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Speaker 2: the decision makers to understand that this is as much

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Speaker 2: of an issue as housing our families.

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Speaker 1: Speaking of prodding decision makers moved to the boardroom last

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Speaker 1: week and Nikola Willis and Barbara Edmonds from Labor agreeing

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Speaker 1: to have a conversation about the future viability of superannuation.

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Speaker 1: I felt as soon as I saw that headline like

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Speaker 1: you would have some very strong thoughts.

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Speaker 2: I do, and the Minister of Finances being a bit

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Speaker 2: mischievous of course, as governments are trying to prod oppositions

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Speaker 2: into doing things they want to do. But it's a

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Speaker 2: really smart idea to have a conversation between major parties

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Speaker 2: to go what do we think we want to do

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Speaker 2: for retirement income policy in the long term, because the

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Speaker 2: worst thing that could happen to New Zealanders, and that's

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Speaker 2: both retires and taxpayers, frankly, is that you work between systems.

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Speaker 2: The best thing that you can do, take advantage of

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Speaker 2: all the evidence you've got and work together to take

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Speaker 2: some quite hard and crunchy choices. You know, usually this

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Speaker 2: compromises on both sides. Usually you've got the kind of

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Speaker 2: black hattery from Treasury which shares the country you can

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Speaker 2: to afford nothing. And then you take another perspective. Its

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Speaker 2: so what do the people need and somewhere in between

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Speaker 2: will be the answer. And I can only keep calling

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Speaker 2: for a kind of cross party approach on this because

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Speaker 2: it's hard and it certainly doesn't put itself into the

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Speaker 2: great easy situation of three year Electra site tooms.

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Speaker 1: You know, really A hey, thanks Janes, I appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: It's no problem, Thank you, catch you.

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Speaker 1: Say, Jane writes in The Retirement Commissioner. They're nineteen to six.

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Speaker 1: For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to

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Speaker 1: news talks they'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow

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