Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has rejected Simon Bridges' claim that taxes and regulations have led to a rise in rents, saying increases have been consistent over the last five years, with the main issue a shortage of rental properties.
Simon Bridges said yesterday that the rent had increased two-and-a-half times more over the last year than it had under the previous National government.
While Ms Ardern acknowledged there had been an increase, she said it was nowhere near as dramatic as Mr Bridges claimed.
“I’ve been looking at the numbers since I got back and actually what you’ll find if you use the more commonly used data which gives us the mean over that period, it’s pretty consistent, over the last five years you see rents on average increasing between four and five per cent each year,” she told Breakfast.
“So, it is true to say there have been increases, it’s not true to say in the last year that it’s been somehow an exponential rise.”
Ms Ardern said the Government were working to address what she said was the major cause of the increase, a limited supply of rental properties.
“Now the reason for increases as anyone would assume is, you’ve got more demand than supply, then it’s a problem,” she said.
“I absolutely acknowledge that which is why we are intervening in the market, we think it's failed so we’re trying to build houses ourselves to deal with the lack of supply.”
Mr Bridges yesterday blamed regulations and taxes for increasing costs for landlords.
The National leader says rents have risen two-and-a-half times as much per year under the coalition compared with when National were in power.
“You’ve got the extension to the bright-line test, you’ve got a potential capital gains tax, there’s another one there if I catch my breath and think about it,” Mr Bridges told Breakfast yesterday.
“You’ve got a bunch of regulations, whether it’s healthy homes, whether it’s residential tenancy act, I’m not saying they and every single part of them are terrible but what you do see cumulatively when you do those things, is tax, cost that goes on landlords.”
“My fundamental point, which is inarguable, is that there is more cost, there is more tax, landlords are coming out of this market, rent has gone up, for a Government that says it’s kind, that’s not too kind.”
Ms Ardern said the bright-line test was brought in by the previous Government and that other changes were to create a level playing field that supported good tenants and landlords equally.
“The bright-line test was brought in under National, what we’ve done is extend it over a couple of years but again, it was bought in under the last Government.”
“Healthy homes, well my view is most landlords do want to provide a warm, dry home for their tenants and that it’s not an unreasonable expectation.”
“Yes, we’ve made some changes to say that we don’t want people to get pinged with letting fees, those are actually changes we need to make because in our market place at the moment, more people are renting.”
“We do need to make sure we have a good and reasonable playing field where good landlords are supported, but actually good tenants are supported as well.”
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