Standing back, Labour’s proposal look as though they might make a big difference in only a small number of sectors, notably the lower end of the export education market. If implemented, they will be likely to temporarily demand housing demand – perhaps reinforcing the current weakness in the Auckland housing market, along with some of their other proposed legislation (eg the extension of the brightline test and the “healthy homes” bill). But they aren’t any sort of solution to the house price problem either: after the single year adjustment, population growth projections will be as strong as ever, and in the face of those pressures only fixing the urban land market will solve that problem. Time will tell what Labour’s policy proposals in that area, which have sounded promising, will come to.