816 landlords react to Labour's housing proposals

The NZ Property Investors' Federation (NZPIF) received 816 responses to a survey of rental property owners giving their thoughts on a variety of matters currently affecting their industry.

Part of the survey backs up the view of Tony Alexander, BNZ Chief Economist, that Labour housing policies will put pressure on rental prices.

In his latest economic overview, Alexander said that "Labour's policy mix has capacity to help constrain the pace of house price rises for lower-priced properties by boosting supply. But it will come at the price of higher rents".

This opinion is backed up by the NZPIF survey, with 73.6% saying they would increase rental prices if the suite of policies aimed at making it harder for them to provide rental properties was introduced.
More than half of all respondents (54.8%) would increase weekly rental prices between $20 and $40 per week, with 12.8% increasing rents by more than $40 per week.

This gives an indication of the rental price increases tenants are likely to see if Labour’s rental property policies are introduced.

Unlike the Reserve Bank, which acknowledged that their debt to income restrictions would lead to 18,000 fewer rental properties, Labour has not released information on the impact of their policies on rental prices or rental housing supply.

"Labour must have researched the likely impact of their policies on the rental market" says Andrew King, executive officer of the NZPIF. "I think the families who are renting and all other tenants deserve to hear what this research shows in terms of rental prices and the supply of rental properties."

ENDS
A copy of the full survey results can be found https://www.nzpif.org.nz/news/view/58840

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