Cooking The Books

Each week the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking The Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's whether it's about to get easier to buy your own home. Hosted by Frances Cook.First home buyers will be crossing their fingers and toes that relief is on the horizon, with the Labour Government working on plans to ban foreign buyers from our housing market.It's a strong move, designed to ease the pressure that's seen home ownership slip out of the reach of ordinary New Zealanders.It's one that appeals to me at first blush. Keep New Zealand homes for New Zealanders, not some foreign landlord that makes us tenants in our own country.It's simple supply and demand; if you reduce the competition for a house, down from the whole world, to just New Zealanders, the prices will surely fall.But the devil is always in the detail with these issues, and housing is a particularly devilish issue.We still need new homes built here, and some say this move will stop the foreign investment that drives big projects