“Landlords and ultimately renters have take a hammering from Labour and as the cost of living increases, ACT says it’s time to give them a break,” says ACT Deputy Leader and Housing spokesperson Brooke van Velden.

“By piling on costs to landlords like removing interest deductibility, putting expectations around healthy homes for private landlords but not government and extending the brightline test, landlords have had no choice but to pass on costs to tenants.

“Landlords have told me they have tried to protect their tenants but ultimately they’ve had no choice but to pass on the ever increasing costs.

“ACT has been opposed to the Government’s plans to remove interest deductibility from the start. When it was announced we described it as “a tax grab rather than a policy to solve the housing crisis, it is intended to line government coffers at the expense of Mum and Dad investors, most of whom own just one extra property.”

“Hammering landlords isn’t going to help us build more houses, it does the opposite. ACT is proposing genuine solutions that will make a tangible difference and lead to more houses being built at lower prices.

ACT would:

• Incentivise and resource councils to provide infrastructure for new homes by sharing half of the GST with them
• Scrap the Resource Management Act, replacing it with a new Urban Development Act that respects existing property rights while making it easier to increase housing supply
• Automatically allow building materials approved by jurisdictions with high-quality regulators and similar seismic situations to ours (e.g., Japan and California) to be used in New Zealand
• Require councils to accept any ‘equivalent material’ certified by MBIE for use in building projects

“In the case of GST sharing, I have a Member's Bill that was recently drawn from the ballot and will be debated in Parliament. The Government should support it to create real change in housing immediately.

“The Government should be asking ‘how do we create an environment for investment and development?’ Instead, this Government has targeted Mum and Dad landlords and investors with new housing taxes.

“By failing to ask the right question, it has failed to deliver on the very thing New Zealand needs it to - meaningful change so New Zealanders can build more homes. We hear ya.”

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