Policy breakdown: Housing

We’re breaking down different parties' policies on some of the biggest issues in Aotearoa right now. Here's housing.

For summaries on other key topics, here’s tax, cost of living, education, rainbow rights, climate change, health, and crime and justice.

These are condensed summaries to make it as easy as possible for young voters to get key, relevant information. Parties may have more policies, or there may be more information or more policy detail beyond what we have been able to fit in here.

There are links to the full set of a party’s policies at the end of each section if you want more details or to see where it sits in their policy portfolio.

Parties are listed in order of the most recent 1News Verian poll, and there’s further info about our methodology at the bottom of this article.

Here’s what the parties are promising to do:

National

Stop “Labour’s war on landlords” and improve the rental market

Bring back interest deductibility for rental properties.

To explain: Rental properties are businesses, and business owners (including self-employed people and landlords) don’t pay tax on their total business income, instead they just pay tax on the amount they made once they subtracted all their business expenses from their income.
Business expenses that landlords can subtract include insurance, maintenance and rates, and previously interest, but in 2021 the Labour government changed the rules so that interest cannot be claimed for residential properties. National wants to change this back.

Restore the bright-line test back to two years.

In 2021 the Labour government extended the bright-line test from two years to ten years, meaning if you sell a residential property that’s not your main home within 10 years of buying it (or five years for new builds), you need to pay tax on the profit you make.
Other political parties have labelled this a form of capital gains tax and National wants to bring it back to two years.

Bring back no-cause terminations.

Labour removed the ability for landlords to terminate a rental agreement with no cause in 2021. National wants to bring this back.

National says Labour’s changes discouraged landlords from wanting to rent out their properties, therefore decreasing supply and pushing up rents.

Change the Overseas Investment Act to make it easier for international investors to create “build-to-rent” developments, which are medium-to-high density developments specifically only available for renters.

Let under-30s use their Kiwisaver for flat bonds.

Social housing: build 1000 state homes a year in Auckland

Increase the number of social housing places, including building 1000 state homes a year in Auckland.

Put families living in emergency housing motels or cars longer than three months to the top of the social housing waitlist, by creating a new priority category for them. (Currently there are two categories: households who are at risk and have a severe and persistent need, and households with a significant and persistent need).

End emergency housing motels in Rotorua.

Let Kāinga Ora (the government agency responsible for social housing) evict unruly tenants.

Introduce consultation requirements for new Kāinga Ora developments, so neighbourhoods have more of a say on whether a new social housing development is built in their area.

Stop KiwiBuild and use the funds for a Housing Growth Plan

National would also end funding for the Affordable Housing Fund, Kāinga Ora’s land acquisition programme and the Housing Acceleration Fund.

National says these programmes have not delivered good value for money.

Their Housing Growth Plan:

Unlock land for housing by making councils in major towns and cities zone land for the next 30 years of housing demand.

Let councils opt-out of the Medium Density Residential Zone law, which National and a Labour-led government passed together in 2021 to allow more dense housing including three-storey buildings on most sites.

Reduce regulation for developers to fund infrastructure.

Have targeted rates for greenfield developments, aka building on undeveloped land, so councils don’t need to pay for infrastructure for the developments.
Make Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency prioritise transport funding in areas that support housing growth.
A $1 billion Build-for-Growth fund to pay incentives to councils that deliver more housing. This will be funded by stopping KiwiBuild.

End the ban on foreign buyers for houses worth over $2 million and tax those purchases at 15% to help pay for National’s tax cut plans.

Read more on National’s policies here.

Labour

Up to $18k for people to make their homes energy-efficient

A rebate of up to $7000 for double glazing and insulation
And up to $3000 for switching to electricity instead of gas
“Deep retrofits”, which take a whole-of-house approach could be eligible for a 30% rebate of up to $18,000

Labour says shifting all New Zealand homes off gas, which is a fossil fuel, and onto electricity could reduce our carbon emissions by an amount equal to taking 92,000 cars off the road.

Build an extra 6000 state houses

And an extra 1000 state houses a year in Auckland.

Labour says over the last six years they have delivered 13,000 public homes. The party says this is the most any government has done since the 1950s.

Labour has also been promoting the housing supports they have introduced while in Government, including:

A $1 billion Infrastructure Acceleration Fund launched in 2021 to support infrastructure like roads, water and flood management to be built in areas that have high housing need
A new resource management system.
First Home Grants, First Home Loans and the rent-to-own Progressive Home Ownership scheme.
Banning foreign buyers.
For renters: banning no-cause terminations, limiting rent rises to only be once a year, allowing tenants to make minor alterations with the landlord’s permission, and banning letting fees.

See the rest of Labour’s policies here.

The Green Party

The Green Party’s housing policy covers:

Renting:

Make landlords unable to increase rent more than 3% per year.

Rental warrant of fitness.

Require all tenancies to be offered as long-term or permanent.

Support for people who have been evicted.
Support councils to limit rental properties being lost to short-term visitor accommodation (like Airbnb).
Review the Tenancy Tribunal to make sure it is accessible and balanced for renters.
Create a register of property managers and landlords.
Let renters have pets.

Homelessness:

Immediately provide housing to the homeless.
Develop specific Rainbow homelessness support services.

Public housing:

Large increase in funding for Māori-led housing solutions. Co-governance model for the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and Kāinga Ora.

Create a legal right to adequate housing.

Enhance and expand the number of public houses.
Oppose any privatisation of public housing.
Provide safe and accessible options for disabled people.

Sustainable buildings:

Create a Ministry for Green Works for supply of suitable housing.

Make sure buildings are designed to mitigate climate change and provide for the wellbeing of people, for example efficient heating, water conservation, net-zero construction, natural hazard resilience.
Make all government buildings, including offices and public housing, have sustainable building practices.

See the rest of the Green Party’s policies here.

ACT

End the “war on landlords”, which ACT says has led landlords to not want to rent out their properties any more, reducing the supply of rental properties and pushing up costs.

Bring back interest deductibility for rental properties.

To explain: Rental properties are businesses, and business owners (including self-employed people and landlords) don’t pay tax on their total business income, instead they just pay tax on the amount they made once they subtracted all their business expenses from their income.
Business expenses that landlords can subtract include insurance, maintenance and rates, and previously interest, but in 2021 the Labour government changed the rules so that interest cannot be claimed for residential property. ACT wants to change this back.

Abolish the bright-line test

In 2021 the Labour government extended the bright-line test from two years to ten years, meaning if you sell a residential property that’s not your main home within 10 years of buying it (or five years for new builds), you need to pay tax on the profit you make.
Other political parties have labelled this a form of capital gains tax, and ACT wants to abolish it.

Additionally:

Change the Residential Tenancies Act to let landlords evict tenants after two written notices within a year (currently three within 90 days).
Let landlords charge an additional bond for pets.
Reduce the amount of notice a landlord needs to give if they want to sell from 90 days down to 42, and reduce the amount of notice a tenant needs to give from 28 days down to 21.
Let landlords dispose of things tenants leave behind after two weeks.

More powers for Kāinga Ora to evict unruly social housing tenants:

Let Kāinga Ora evict tenants, not just transfer them to a new social housing placement, if they engage in dangerous or severe disruptive behaviour.
Only require sign-off by a service unit manager (currently requires sign off by the chief executive).
Move those tenants to the bottom of the social housing waitlist.
Make Kāinga Ora consider all public complaints, and engage with police if made aware of tenants’ illegal activity.

Changes to building regulations to encourage more houses to be built:

Get rid of the Resource Management Act and replace it with a new Urban Development Act that “respects existing property rights” while making it easier to build more houses.
Give 50% of the GST on a new build to councils, so they are incentivised and have the money to provide infrastructure for new homes.
Change rules around building materials to automatically allow materials that are approved by countries like Japan, to be used in New Zealand.

See more of ACT’s policies here.

New Zealand First

NZ First’s housing policies are:

Create a Housing Commission “to ensure a non-political approach in solving New Zealand’s housing issues”.
Create a Ministry of Infrastructure.
Change the Resource Management Act to be more like those in England and Ireland.
Change recent laws that allow for more dense housing.
Encourage the use of New Zealand expertise on prefabricated houses.
Bring back interest deductibility for rental properties. (Rental properties are businesses, and business owners, including self-employed people and landlords, don’t pay tax on their total business income, instead they just pay tax on the amount they made once they subtracted all their business expenses from their income. Business expenses that landlords can subtract include insurance, maintenance and rates, and previously interest, but in 2021 the Labour government changed the rules so that interest cannot be claimed for residential properties. NZ First wants to change this back.)
Support social housing, especially for seniors.
Have a Select Committee Inquiry into improving policy for first-home buyers.

Te Pāti Māori

Te Pāti Māori’s housing policy:

Build 2000 houses on ancestral land over the next two years.

Allocate 50% of all new social housing to Māori.

Develop and build state housing stock.

Ghost house tax for unoccupied dwellings that don’t have a tenant after a six-month period. Taxed at 33% on the current market value of the property, minus the purchase price.

No more selling of freehold land to overseas investors. Currently, foreign buyers cannot buy houses in New Zealand, but foreign investors can buy land if they will invest and develop it if they meet investment and “benefit to New Zealand” criteria.
Apply the Overseas Investment Act to all residential housing purchases.

See the rest of Te Pāti Māori’s policies here.

Notes on our methodology

How we chose the parties: We’ve included parties who currently have MPs in Parliament, (aka Labour, National, Greens, ACT and Te Pāti Māori) or parties which are likely to win one electorate seat or meet the 5% threshold to get into Parliament (aka NZ First), according to what recent polls are showing. Political parties need to get at least 5% of the party vote or win at least one electorate seat to get into Parliament.

These are condensed summaries: To make it as easy as possible for young voters to get key, relevant information. Parties may have more policies or there may be more information or more policy detail beyond what we have been able to fit in here.

These summaries were accurate as of the time of publication: But parties can release policies right up until the day before election day, so some parties may announce policies after we have published.

How will these policies be paid for? Where possible we’ve tried to include information about what the parties say these policies will cost and how they will be paid for, but not every announcement has that information.

Difference between election promises and government policy announcements:

Some of the things Labour has announced over the last few months are government policy announcements (where work can start on them as soon as they are announced), and some are election promises (where they only happen if that party gets elected). It all gets a bit confusing because both of these things can be referred to as policies, so where possible we’ve tried to indicate which is which.