The Wireless

Home ownership for Maori unlikely - Labour Party

10:24 am on 27 May 2014

The opposition Labour Party says home ownership for Maori is becoming an increasingly distant prospect, Radio New Zealand reports.

The price of a new house has reached a six-year high and an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report says that relative to rents, New Zealand has the world's most overvalued housing.

Labour's Maori affairs spokesperson Nanaia Mahuta said only 28.2 percent of Maori own, or partly own, their home.

She said home ownership is about getting on the ladder of economic independence and it's being put out of reach.