People are living illegally in office buildings and we shouldn’t be surprised

Sadly, it’s no surprise that people are choosing to live in illegally converted office blocks – it’s the inevitable result of a housing shortage, says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Olive and Ernest Mape could be the human face of New Zealand’s housing shortage – ordinary Kiwis who find themselves in desperate circumstances, living dangerously and illegally. They won’t have shown up in homelessness figures, which suggests official data may be seriously understating the impact of the housing crisis.

“Attacking the landlord misses the point. The real issue here is that, due to a massive housing shortage, people are desperate enough to accept such offers in the first place. Landlords know they can offer substandard accommodation because tenants have no other options. It’s a sellers’ market.

“This comes off the back of reports of squalid conditions in rentals and boarding houses across the country. Wellington regulators need to realise that cold and damp flats, while inadequate, are often the last resort for people who would otherwise be homeless.

“If we hadn’t spent 30 years blocking new housing with red tape, we would have landlords competing to provide tenants quality and affordable accommodation, rendering regulations unnecessary.

“ACT would turn a landlord’s market into a renter’s market by giving developers freedom to build new homes, injecting competition and quality into the rental market.”

ENDS

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