Why New Zealand banks need to drop mortgage rates
Why New Zealand banks need to drop mortgage rates
OPINION: Banks margins have grown since the cost-of-living crisis began. And every other week it seems, they’re pushing home loan interest rates still higher.
Well if it wants to fix the inflation issue. Isn't this the entire point of high interest rates. Slow down speculation. Push risky investments out of housing. Actually bring down the cost of housing.
Obviously banks getting rich on our misery is a side affects. Maybe tax them on that glut and reinvest it in things to help average kiwis.
My plan would be.
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Solar for all houses and Nationalize the energy sector. Make it non profit and charge the least amount of money to keep the system running. Incentives for adding solar to all properties and create a solar industry in NZ.
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Pump money into making food affordable and cheaper. Make food cheaper not more expensive. Maybe try to increase competition and cut out profit gouging on folks.
Government run farms and roll out community gardens and the like.
Cut glut of politicians and use experts who actually know what they are talking about. Remove housing speculation.
More trains and better transit links. No more return to offices. Hire the best people for the job regardless of location.
Hell yeah, sign me up.
Woa, watch out there buddy! That's starting to sound suspiciously like socialism!
Or just using the technological advancements to make life better for everyone. Not just a select few
Putting solar on houses isn't worthwhile unless you're typically at home during the day, because the buyback rate is so low. A much better idea is installing it on businesses, that actually use power during the day.
Modern solar arrays commonly have battery packs so you can use the power when you need it.
But I do like the idea of installing solar on businesses. To be fair, it is a thing, it is happening. But uptake is a lot lower than you might expect. Especially for things like office buildings where the owner is not being charged for power, and the occupiers paying for power aren't the owners.
If we are looking at this from a national power supply point of view, there's likely a middle ground where you can pay people near the current spot price for power, but you're gonna have to increase daily charges for maintaining the lines as currently this is subsidized through charging more for usage (I guess the idea is higher users should pay more for line maintenance, which I can understand as well).
I've seen this argument a lot, and the problem is it always assumes we don't change anything else. Here are some ideas that would make this much more of a non-issue:
- Crown corp power "Kiwi Power" could buy back at full price.
- Night-store heating that charges during the day then releases over night when the temperature drops.
- Hot water heats during the day instead of at night.
- Battery storage for all, or community-sized storage for local redistribution.
- If large-scale storage is done, power price could vary depending on the amount of power supplied during the day that went into storage. With our current smart meters this would be trivial.
So you see with a bit of thought and creativity these problems can be alleviated. Unfortunately, it seems a large proportion of New Zealanders are allergic to change, so this is unlikely to happen.
I get that but doesn't mean you can't use the power during the day. It's not as effective but yes every roof should have solar. We honestly shouldn't need any other power source. Have geo and hydro should mean power is just cost maintenance. No cold or gas should be required.
Probably need to look into storage more than anything. Think business that can claim back plenty in tax expenses get enough help. This is for those struggling to hear their homes. This is for those going hungry because of predatory practices.
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I agree with the author that banks should lower their margins.
The more they do the easier it will be to hike the OCR again. 😄