Poorer families dream about getting away from landlords

Ninety per cent of low-income families want to own their own homes.

A Salvation Army survey of 802 people visiting the army's 24 community and family services throughout New Zealand has found that only 7 per cent of them own their own homes - but 90 per cent would like to.

People renting from private landlords had moved on average every eight months, mainly because they could not afford the rents.

People in state houses had moved on average every two years, compared with eight years for people who owned their own homes.

Owning their own homes was seen as a source of security, setting a good example for their children and preferable to paying "dead money" in rent.

Co-author Bonnie Robinson said the survey showed that the incoming Government should develop programmes to help low-income people buy their own homes, including "second-chance lending" for those with poor credit records.

"In addition to improved home ownership, policies and programmes need to be developed to ensure that rental housing provides security of tenure and a healthy living environment for those who cannot, or choose not to, make the move to home ownership," she said.

Not surprisingly, the survey found that the main barriers to home ownership were financial: saving for the deposit (31 per cent), not meeting bank requirements (29 per cent), inability to afford a house of the right size in the right area (24 per cent) and the cost of rates, insurance and repairs (16 per cent).

The 10 per cent who did not want to buy their own homes said they liked where they lived already (31 per cent), buying would be too expensive (30 per cent), they did not know much about buying houses (14 per cent), they would rather have a landlord look after repairs (12 per cent) or they would rather spend their money on other things (12 per cent).