Push on for better deal for renters

An report said NZ has one of the most restrictive regimes for renters in the developed world. Photo / File

The Government is facing growing calls to improve the lot of renters - including from its own officials - as increasing numbers of New Zealanders are locked out of home ownership.

A recent Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment briefing to Building and Housing Minister Nick Smith notes home ownership rates are falling internationally and many households are likely to spend longer periods in the rental market.

It said NZ's rental market "has a number of characteristics that add to pressures to move from rentals to home ownership at an early stage".

It lists one of the "key areas" for improvement as "developing options to provide greater security of rental tenure nationally".

In a recent report, NZ Institute for Economic Research economist Shamubeel Eaqub said NZ had one of the most restrictive regimes for renters in the developed world.

"New Zealand is strangely different in that we have made this almost special provision around renting of residential property versus other types of renting," he told the Weekend Herald yesterday.

Angela Maynard of Auckland's Tenants Protection Association said landlords' ability to evict tenants in 90 days for no reason meant "no tenant in New Zealand can ever make the house their home because there's always that hanging over them".

Andrew King of the Property Investors Federation said many landlords did want long-term tenants "and there are a few tenants who would like to stay for a long time as well".

"Where we see Government could help is setting up a database or some sort of a marketing system where you actually put those people together."

Numbers

• 53.2 Per cent - NZ's home ownership rate in 2006
• 49.8 - Rate recorded in 2013 Census
• 453,135 - Households in rental homes in last year's Census - up from 388,275 in 2006