2020 election: the Green Party and the Opportunities Party support the introduction of rent limits

The Green Party and the Opportunity Party have announced that they will both support the introduction of rent limits that would limit the amount a landlord could raise rent.

At the Enough for All: Election Forum 2020 event in Wellington Central on Wednesday night, a tenant named Zoe told politicians about her rental experience in the capital city.

“In 2017, I moved into an eight-bedroom apartment in downtown Wellington; nine of us lived there to make it affordable and shared a rent of $ 1600 per week, ”he said.

“My rent for a room that could be charitably called a shoebox room was $ 205 per week, which was more than half of my income at the time.”

Paying the rent was stressful for Zoe and her roommates; many had accepted one or more jobs while studying to fill it.

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“It was not uncommon for my roommates and I to often have to cover for our other roommates due to inability to pay rents on time.”

Although they managed to make their payments every week, Zoe said her house was not warm or dry.

“In our first winter in the apartment, I began to notice black mold on my ceiling.”

A month later, the ceiling in his bedroom began to leak and then spill, he said.

The apartment received a compensation of $ 200.

Zoe said her rent increased year-over-year – in 2018, it was $ 1,700 per week, and in 2019, it increased to $ 1,800.

To make rent affordable, 11 people lived at the property.

In February, the apartment was told that the rent would go back up by $ 200, which equates to $ 2000 a week.

“Obviously we moved because it was unaffordable and during that same period, my income and that of my roommates [income] it had barely gone up. “

Tenants needed action now, he told politicians.

“My question to you is: until the supply of rental housing increases with demand, does your party support the introduction of rent caps to limit the amount by which landlords can increase the rent?”

Ricardo Menéndez-March of the Green Party said he supported “legislating to ensure safe and affordable long-term rental accommodation.”

“I think we have to make sure landlords don’t scam us in the middle of a housing crisis.”

It was “absolutely unfair” that people spent most of their income on rent and “here people are left without money due to high rents.”

Nicola Willis of the National Party acknowledged that there was a huge housing challenge in Wellington, but the party would not support the introduction of rent limits.

“We have to increase the supply of housing, that is why we are committed to replacing and appealing the Resource Administration Law … we believe that this type of systemic reform reaches the heart of our housing problem, which comes down to not having enough houses to keep up with demand. When we solve that, rents and home ownership become more affordable. “

Taylor Arneil of New Zealand First said he advocated building more homes rather than introducing rent limits.

Andrew Little of the Labor Party said he did not support introducing rent limits.

“This government has done several things. We have regulated what homeowners can and cannot do or need to do in terms of quality of housing and many things are starting to take effect, ”he said.

The Labor Party had inherited a housing crisis from the previous government that had reduced the country’s state housing stock, he said.

The current government has joined social housing, he said.

“There is more to do and Kiwibuild has not been as successful as we expected, but we have built houses that are more affordable for more people and we have to continue with things like progressive homeownership schemes,” Little said. said.

Opportunity Party leader Geoff Simmons said housing was the biggest problem New Zealand faced.

“To solve this problem, we need to keep house prices and rents stable for another generation to allow our income to catch up,” said Simmons.

“So this is a huge, huge challenge; it will take a lot of different actions to get there.”

Anna Mooney, a spokeswoman for Renters United, a renters advocacy group that has started a fair rent petition, said it was unfortunate that “National, Labor and NZ First do not offer solutions to uncontrolled rents other than to increase supply.” .

“That will take decades, as tenants get deeper into trouble,” Mooney said.

“Renters United wants to see rent limits where landlords cannot raise rent more than inflation. This is the only way to prevent rents from becoming more unaffordable. “