Jacinda Ardern says buying a $1 million home has helped her understand those who are battling to get on the property ladder.

"I know that I'm privileged in the fact that I was able to buy that house," Ardern says. "And when we were looking around, it was still hard for us to find something that we could afford to buy, and I'm on a good wicket. So of course that made me sit there and think, 'what about the rest of New Zealand? What about those other families?'"

The Labour leader and National's Bill English do battle on Sunday in their Last Pitch interviews with Stuff.

Asked whether he now recognised there was a housing crisis, English said his government had known about it before anyone else – but he refused to use the language of "hopelessness".

"That's classic politician semantics," said Paine in response. "You can call it a crisis, a shortage, or whatever you want - the fact is 60 per cent of New Zealanders don't own a home."

The couple have a nine-month old son, Gabriel, and hope to be able to buy their own home one day. Paine is a primary school teacher; Kerr is a journalist.

Kerr said she found English's comments "extremely patronising".

"We both work really, really hard," she said. "We find it impossible to save in the city centre of Auckland."

Moving away from the central city would mean commuting in a car for Kerr, who currently walks to work.

The couple have been weighing up the financial benefits of moving to Dubai in the future.

"We're just in a position where we can't really save money," she said. "That's why we're looking at Dubai at the moment because teachers are in great demand there."

And what do the pair think of Ardern's move up the property ladder into a $987,000 house in Pt Chevalier?

"When she says she's on a 'good wicket' she does earn a good salary and it's going to be a lot easier for her," said Paine.

"Others have no chance. I think she's trying to appeal to a crowd; she doesn't know what it feels like, because she's not in a position to not get on the property ladder. She's indeed fortunate."

Ardern bought the house last year with her partner, Clarke Gayford. This year she sold her previous home in Auckland Central.

Kerr said she didn't know Ardern owned a $1 million home, while speaking for young people who couldn't get on the housing ladder. "It's not a great look for her I think."

Asked what he was doing to ease households experiencing severe housing stress, English said relief would come on the 1st of April next year.

"The ones in the worst situations will be getting up to $150 a week, between lower taxes, higher child payments and very considerable increases in the accommodation subsidy," he said.

But Paine was sceptical.

"Even if those people were able to save that extra money, $150 a week for a $50,000 deposit is going to take a very long time," he said.