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Building Minister Shane Jones says he is close to getting official advice on a system that could let tenants stay in rented houses when the landlord changes.
He told a seminar in Waitakere yesterday that the new system, which he signalled in March, could allow a tenant to lease a rented home for nine, 15 or 21 years, as in the United States.
The lease would continue even if the property changed hands during the term of the lease.
"I have some work coming back in early August identifying what options we can look at putting into law to assuage the concerns of property owners but give guaranteed tenure to renters," he said.
"Is there some way of us borrowing our property rights that belong to other parts of the economy so that an investor can tolerate a 5 per cent return over 30 years and they offer services connected to a shell [of a building], and someone else comes up and invests within the shell and sells on a 21-year leasehold?
"We have that in commercial property. We don't have it in residential property."
Property Investors Federation vice-president Andrew King said the scheme could work, but it would depend on the details. "Landlords don't like leasehold because the cost of the lease goes up and they can't increase their rents."
