It is appalling and negligent that landlords are being encouraged to keep their properties cold and damp until after the election, as advised by the NZ Property Investors Federation, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today.
“That advice from a property lobby group is despicable and quite frankly, dangerous.
“Landlords should instead seek to do right by their tenants and abide by the law and make sure their homes are fit to live in.
“Housing is a human right and the sooner landlords get on with ensuring their homes are warm and dry, the better.
“With an increasing amount of New Zealanders living in rentals we need to make sure every home is healthy and warm to live in.
“The Green Party is calling on landlords to make sure they get on with complying with the current laws as quickly as possible. Any delay means more people will live in unhealthy homes for longer.
“The Green Party’s transformational Homes for All Plan will go further, faster to make sure everyone has a healthy home to live in.”
The recently announced Green Party Homes for All Plan will:
Improve Housing Quality:
- We’ll overhaul the building code so new builds are warm, dry, energy efficient, and accessible.
- We’ll expand the Warmer Kiwi Homes insulation and heating programme.
- We’ll require all residential properties for sale to include an independent check of building health and safety, including warmth, dryness, and energy efficiency.
Change the rules for rentals:
- We’ll improve the Healthy Homes Standards to introduce a proper Housing Warrant of Fitness.
- We’ll regulate the rental property management market, including university halls, to professionalise rental property in a move towards European-style long term renting, and protect people against the cowboys operating in the market currently.
Increase housing supply and affordability:
- We’ll change the rules to empower and encourage community housing including co-housing and papakāinga. This will support the emergence of a non-profit rental market, with a particular focus on Māori housing development
- We’ll maintain the public house build programme, prioritising progressive home ownership such as rent-to-own and shared equity models, and ensuring no net loss of Crown land to market sales
- We’ll support an integrated, Māori-led community response to homelessness. During COVID-19 we solved homelessness temporarily. Now we need to make sure we get people into permanent homes.
