The following article first appeared in the October 2023 issue of the NZ Property Investor Magazine and is reproduced here with the permission of the owner. Click here to subscribe to the NZ Property Investor Magazine direct or contact us to add the subscription to your APIA membership at a discounted rate.
I don’t want to jinx things, but if the polls are anything to go by we are inching ever so close to interest deductibility and bright-line scale-back.
You can practically feel the buzz in the air, and about time. After the six years we’ve had, our raw nerve endings could do with soothing. A return to common sense taxation should do the trick, but don’t expect rental property ownership to suddenly be a day at the beach.
Things on the tenancy side are far less dynamic in this election cycle.
Sure, the Nats promise to reinstate 90-day no-fault termination, and the Greens have a litany of demands, including a rental WOF and a 3 per cent rent cap. Exciting, but not course-altering.
The constant and sometimes punishing drumbeat calling for landlords to upskill will continue irrespective of who ascends the throne come October. The electoral maths is there plain as day: renters grossly outnumber landlords and rent longer.
A politician who calls renting a hobby sport for landlords carries his valedictory speech in the back pocket. If you are waiting for the 54th parliament to lower the bar of expectation on landlords, you will be sorely disappointed.
Rubber and roads
I’m not trying to be glib. I’m a big supporter of landlords being held to a high standard. And I’m often part of the chorus that calls for raising that standard even further. We are...
