I agree with AmericanGuy that housing here is national scandal. There is so much that is done wrong. Builders often put them up as cheaply as possible to make a quick profit. Owners often prefer cosmetic repairs over proper, structural repairs in order to increase their resale value. There seems to be an attitude that a building should only last about twenty or thirty years: one which I think has developed recently, because stuff built in the first half of the twentieth century looks a lot more solid.

The reason for this approach is also because there is no land tax or capital gains tax in New Zealand. The best way to make a tax-free profit is by buying houses, tarting them up a bit and selling them on for a price in excess of the cost of the work, which is generally the cheapest way of making a house look good, rather than, for example, insulating it.

It's a real pity because it's a zero-sum game. Creating a successful business generally results in a happy businessman and happy customers. Everyone wins. IN housing, by contrast, the extent to which a person makes a surplus profit is equal to the extent someone else gets ripped off.