The Māori Party face the least political risks from deregulating land supply because so few Māori own their own homes. Less than half the rate of European New Zealanders. Māori home ownership rates peaked in 1991.
Source: 2013 Census QuickStats about housing.
Nonetheless, the Māori Party supplied the last two votes to vote down attempts to relax regulatory restrictions on the supply of land in New Zealand.
Source and notes: International House Price Database – Dallas Fed June 2015; nominal housing prices for each country is deflated by the personal consumption deflator for that country.
Their rationale for making land more expensive is a commitment to environmental principles. As the Māori Party coleader explained at the time:
We know there is considerable pressure and need for this Government to address the housing shortage, particularly in Auckland. However, one intent of the RMA, is to protect our environment for generations to come and this must remain paramount.
The 2014 policy manifesto of the party did not discuss housing supply or the need for reform of the RMA. It was mainly about social housing and the quality of rental house.
The chances of Māori increasing their homeownership rates rather than becoming leading members of Generation Rent requires a relaxation in restrictions in the RMA on the supply of land.
Auckland is up with London and New York in terms of housing unaffordability relative to median incomes. US cities with responsive land regulation don’t experience housing bubbles.
Glaeser and Gyourko summarised the findings of a number of studies on land supply and housing prices:
Recent research also indicates that house prices are more volatile, not just higher, in tightly regulated markets …. price bubbles are more likely to form in tightly regulated places, because the inelastic supply conditions that are created in part from strict local land-use regulation are an important factor in supporting ever larger price increases whenever demand is increasing. …. It is more difficult for house prices to become too disconnected from their fundamental production costs in lightly regulated markets because significant new supply quickly dampens prices, thereby busting any illusions market participants might have about the potential for ever larger price increases.
There has been a steady decline in housing affordability in New Zealand. The position is critical of the bottom 20% of the income ladder. Four in 10 now spend more than 30% of their disposable income on housing costs. Māori will be over-represented in this group but the party set-up to speak for them fails to do everything it can to make their housing cheaper.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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