National leader Judith Collins on why her party should lead New Zealand through a pandemic and the economic fall out during the first of Newstalk ZB's Leaders Breakfasts.
National leader Judith Collins is promising property investors a tax break by reducing the bright line test back to two years in an effort to make more Kiwis landlords.
If elected, National would also pass emergency legislation its first 100 days to force councils to release land for 30 years of urban development and sell state houses to their occupants.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern slammed the policy saying it would "take us back to the 1990s" and move New Zealand away from delivering housing to first home buyers and build state houses.
"To suggest that as an answer to the housing troubles that New Zealand experiences, to sell off state houses, I think is absolutely wrong," Ardern said.
National's housing policy promises to allow social tenants to buy the houses they lived in under a rent-to-own or shared equity scheme.
Collins promised to build as many state houses as they sold off to tenants under the scheme and would continue the current Government's workstream to reduce the social housing waitlist.
National would also take the bright line test - the number of years someone has to own a property before they can sell it without the profits being taxed - back to two years after the Labour-led Government increased it to five years.
Collins said "all that did was make it more difficult for people to be enticed into being landlords".
And it would repeal ring-fencing rules that prevent people who run rental properties at a loss from claiming this as a tax break against their other income.
Reducing the bright line test and repealing the ring-fencing rules would cost $480m.
Asked whether it was the right time to give tax breaks to property investors, Collins said: "You know what? Right now is the right time to get more people providing houses for people to rent."
Collins said she didn't want to see people's equity affected by a decrease in house prices, but wanted to see them made more affordable.
Without a drop in prices and no hike in salaries, Collins said her plan to make housing more affordable was to build more houses which would make them cheaper - especially for first home buyers.
The key to building more was repealing the Resource Management Act, which both National and Labour have promised, as that would allow the consent process to be much faster.
Ideally Collins said she would like to see house prices stabilise around the country as they had in Christchurch.
Housing Minister Megan Woods said National's housing policy is "reckless". Photo / Mark Mitchell
There the median house price of $461,000 was 5.6 times the median income - compared to Auckland's $830,000 median house price being 8.6 times the median income, according the 16th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey.
After the earthquakes in 2010 and 2011, the then National-led government required that all 30 years of planned growth be zoned for housing right away in response to the threat of a steep escalation in house prices.
Collins said they would do this again across the country by passing emergency legislation to force councils to unlock that land for more housing.
It would also incentivise landbankers to either sell or develop their land because a change in zoning would mean their rates would go up, she said.
Collins announced the housing policy on an empty section in a Special Housing Area in Papakura.
"Sadly, the dream of home ownership has slipped further away under the Labour-led Government, which is turning New Zealand into a nation of renters. National will fix this."
As well, National's housing spokeswoman Jacqui Dean said they would "simplify" the Healthy Homes regulations and repeal the "unwieldy" recently-passed rental regulations so it was easier for landlords to comply.
"This will stop good landlords from fleeing the market due to cost, bringing down the cost of rents and ensuring there are enough rental properties on the market to meet demand," Dean said.
But Labour shot back with Housing Minister Megan Woods calling the policy "reckless" and "half-baked" which would only benefit property speculators.
That would put more pressure on house prices and push home ownership further out of reach for many New Zealanders, she said.
"National's proposals for building consenting drags us back to the multi-billion dollar leaky homes saga during the deregulatory Wild West of the 1990s, and will leave homeowners on the hook. It's reckless and irresponsible."
Collins started her day in Auckland on the campaign trail with Newstalk ZB's Leaders' Breakfast where she announced her party would review Auckland Council if elected.
The first question from Mike Hosking in the two-hour interview was whether Collins was politicising her Christianity, after being photographed praying at St Thomas Church in Auckland yesterday, before casting an early vote.
Collins said she wasn't, and had been a Christian all her life.
"We just happened to be voting in a church ... the minister said, 'Would you like to pop in and have a prayer?' ... I didn't invite the media in.
"It just happened to be that I was in a church ... I was hardly going to turn it down."
