Green’s Plans to Drive Renters into Squalor Won’t Tackle Housing Crisis

Responding to the Green Party’s proposal to cap rent increases to a maximum 3% per year, Taxpayers’ Union Deputy Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said:

“There have been countless attempts to introduce rent control in countries all over the globe, and the evidence is clear as day; rent control does not work.

“Wishful thinking that this policy will guarantee safe and affordable accommodation for low-income households isn’t enough, when time and again it has been shown to have exactly the opposite effect.

“By destroying any incentives for law-abiding landlords to invest, rent control reduces the number of properties which are available to rent and removes any incentive for landlords to maintain properties to a liveable standard. Black market rental properties inevitably fill the gaps, leaving renters with even less legal protection.

“There is a housing crisis in New Zealand that desperately needs tackling, and the key to that is removing overly restrictive planning constraints which stifle supply and drive up prices. Restricting supply through rent control will make the crisis worse.

“All this cheap populism from the Greens will achieve is driving New Zealanders’ living standards down even further, and if their plan to end poverty is condemning generations of Kiwis to living in squalor then they have missed the mark by a mile.

“Economist Assar Lindbeck put it best: “Rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city – except for bombing.”