The other day I met a guy from Chengdu, so I looked it up on YouTube. I also follow a modest YouTuber who uploads videos of Saint Petersburg when he goes for walks with his wife and granddaughter.
I’m not suggesting that Christchurch should look like one of these big cities with 10 or 20 million people, but could we please knock down that derelict building that’s next to the bus exchange? It has walls falling down, and graffiti everywhere. Then there’s the case of shipping containers on the side of the road.
These inner-city features give third world vibes. I don’t care what these buildings are, please destroy them.
We also need a city-wide land tax to encourage development. There are empty sections all around Christchurch that aren’t being used for anything (or they are just for parking a jetboat). I saw two properties in Sumner that are used for parking a jet boat, and there are places in Riccarton like Kirkwood Ave and Leslie Street, each have an empty section which has been empty for 20+ years. The central and local governments aren’t doing anything to solve these problems.
If I’m elected mayor, I will increase rates by 50% every year on any derelict or empty central city property. I’m including gravel parking lots in that.
In all honesty we should all be running for community board. They actually have a bit of power. It just costs money to register, that’s my problem lol. Priorities.
Or just get in touch with members of your existing board. Mine are really keen to help out, they’re mostly great people.
Man you really upset exactly one person with that policy.
The land owner will be bankrupt and end up in jail because of debt owed to the council. Then I guess the land can be confiscated by the city and the city can do whatever it wants with it.
Good plan to confiscate property people.
Or more likely they’ll sell it in a hurry to a developer who wants to - ya know - develop it. Why the media keeps calling these shameless landbankers “developers” is beyond me.
Still fighting insurance? Too bad, it’s been more than 10 years. I’m sick of living in a half-finished city.
Why would anybody buy it? For whatever reason it’s not profitable to build on and now you are going to be millions and millions of debt as every year your rates go up astronomically.
Still fighting insurance? Too bad, it’s been more than 10 years. I’m sick of living in a half-finished city.
Do you really think confiscating land is going to solve this issue?
It’s not that it wouldn’t be profitable to build on it. It’s that it’s more profitable not to build on it.
How would you incentivise these owners to fix their hideous eyesore properties? The carrot approach clearly hasn’t worked, so I think its time for the stick.
It’s not that it wouldn’t be profitable to build on it. It’s that it’s more profitable not to build on it.
Why do you say that? What’s the profit in parking your boat on a piece of land?
How would you incentivise these owners to fix their hideous eyesore properties?
I don’t know. How about we round them up and put them in jail? How about public hangings? How about we flog them in the town square?
I mean why do people need to be punished and hurt because they don’t use their property the way you want them to? Why can’t we just leave people alone FFS!
I can’t stand this attitude. Let’s hurt people because they don’t act like I want them to! It’s fucking sadistic.
If the owner knows the value of the land is just gonna keep going up with no additional effort on their part, why spend the money to build anything on it? May as well just sit on it with the eventual promise of a fat untaxed capital gain. This is how land banking works.
People need to be punished because it’s been over ten years and as I look out my office window right now I can see two derelict decaying buildings and two enormous empty gravel lots. You’re really happy for our central city to remain half-finished indefinitely? It’s a national embarrassment that we haven’t managed to rebuild the city yet.
If the owner knows the value of the land is just gonna keep going up with no additional effort on their part, why spend the money to build anything on it?
First of all doesn’t the value of land go up every year even he does put something on it? Wouldn’t it go up even more if it there was something on it?
Secondly why do you want to punish the owner just because land values go up.
What are you going to do to make the value of the land go down anyway?
People need to be punished because it’s been over ten years and as I look out my office window right now I can see two derelict decaying buildings and two enormous empty gravel lots.
I don’t think people should be punished because of your feelings though.
You’re really happy for our central city to remain half-finished indefinitely?
If that’s the price of freedom then yes.
It’s a national embarrassment that we haven’t managed to rebuild the city yet
I could go on and on about national embarrassments in this country. You think empty lots are an embarrassment? Take a look at the buildings in most cities, take a look at most houses FFS. Leaky, poorly insulated, mouldy, run down, fragile buildings as far as the eye can see.
Hey, now you’re talking
Hey now, owning the means of production sounds like a nice idea, but, but, but… Evil.
–capitalists and temporally embarrassed millionaires
I think you’d really enjoy living in China or Russia or North Korea.
Lol
They don’t let people own property in those places. Just up your alley.
Using the rates system to discourage land banking is not North Korea. Utterly deranged argument
Telling people what they can and can’t do with their property is North Korea.
This is an issue in Wellington as well, we have a few buildings of dubious “heritage” value, that cannot be torn down, as well as a few where the owner just seems unwilling to do anything with them.
It’s really holding us back as well.
You can’t say it’s bad until you’ve seen the mansion on Riccarton Road here in Christchurch. It’s been gutted by arson, but it’s still “heritage” lol. It’s owned by a bank or investment firm or something. It should be knocked down and turned into apartments, with restaurants and shops on the lower level.
Yeah, the last time I was in Christchurch was a few years ago now, and they had a number of empty lots in the CBD still, as well as a rotting pile of stone in the middle of the city.
Hopefully those building owners are paying full commercial rates on those properties.
What could the council do? If they don’t own the land they can’t force the land owner to build a building on it. you really want to live in a city where the council tells people how they must use their land?
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I wonder if the communist party of NZ is still active. It seems like they should have a successful recruitment effort here and elsewhere online.
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I don’t endorse what the USSR was if that’s what you mean.
You kind of do.
I do think it is worth questioning what value hogging finite land provides to society.
Private property and property rights is the cornerstone of western culture. It’s what made our civilisation. It’s what gave you everything you have.
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yes. confiscating property will collapse society. Confiscating property by levying unpayable escalating taxes will also collapse society.
They could have such measure in place for 5 - 10 years and then get rid of it.
What measure?
Tax land and encourage someone to actually build some damned houses.
How would a tax encourage building? That makes no sense.
