New data released this week shows that rents are up $175 per week since Labour took office, National’s Housing spokesperson Chris Bishop says.

MBIE’s Tenancy Services Rental Bond Data release for January 2023 shows median rents nationwide have reached an eye-watering $575 per week - up $175 since Labour took office in October 2017.

“Families are doing it tough thanks to record high food prices, rising mortgage interest rates and record rent increases,” Mr Bishop says.

“Kiwis are paying the price for Labour’s ill-advised and naive housing policies.

“Officials warned the Government that removing interest deductibility for landlords and extending the bright-line test – which means anyone selling a property other than the family home within 10 years is considered a speculator – would raise rents, and that’s exactly what’s happened. As a result, there’s more churn for tenants and more people in need of social and emergency housing.

“Labour’s ‘Tenant Taxes’ are backfiring, with landlords simply leaving the market, or increasing rents to make up for their increased costs.

“Labour has no plan to help renters, just start a war on Mum and Dad landlords. They aren’t the problem – the government is the problem.

“National will reverse Labour’s interest deductibility and bright-line changes and stop Labour’s war on landlords.

“We will unlock more land for housing, drive infrastructure investment to create more housing, share the benefits of housing growth with local communities, increase long-term rental options with Build-to-Rent housing, boost social and affordable housing by backing community housing providers and ensure everyday Kiwis can get mortgages by fixing the Consumer Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act which has cut access to bank lending.

“National is determined that New Zealand can once again be a place where hardworking, aspirational, everyday people can see a path to home ownership. Where Labour has failed, National will deliver.”

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