Shocking! New Zealand's renting population hits another record! 2,000,000 people are renting—double the number in 1991!

Last week, Ashley Church, former CEO of the Property Institute of New Zealand and a prominent OneRoof property commentator, published a commentary titled “The cost of Labour making enemies of landlords”. It stated: “New Zealand's population continues to grow, and the number of people renting nationwide has reached around 2,000,000. That means about 40% of New Zealanders choose to rent, yet a series of measures introduced since Labour took office amount to a direct declaration of ‘war’ on landlords.

Church said: “New Zealand's rental market will continue to deteriorate over the coming years. The government's ‘war’ on landlords will cost the country tens of billions of New Zealand dollars in economic losses and affect thousands of investors.”
 
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“War” and its cost will drive landlords to give up or leave the housing market
 
Last Friday, property commentator Church said that since 2017, the Labour government had introduced a series of policies declaring “war” on landlords. He said their destructive impact on landlords resembled a return to old-style socialism, and predicted potentially even more serious consequences.
 
The commentary listed the following government measures in its “war” on landlords:
1. Controls on the rents landlords charge;
2. Removing landlords' ability to evict “problem” tenants even in the most extreme circumstances;
3. Major changes to the way landlords are taxed, treating them differently from other businesses;
4. Substantial new costs to meet new property standards;
5. And the world's most aggressive capital gains tax, in the form of a 10-year bright-line test applied at the owner's marginal tax rate.
 
Ashley Church said: “These government measures to ‘weaken’ landlords are effectively successive battles for control and acts of plunder on different scales. Their implementation will ultimately cause landlords to give up or leave the property market.”
 
Church analysed the severity of the challenges facing New Zealand's housing market from three perspectives:
 
1. Continued population growth The rental market faces a serious reversal
 
Church said: “New Zealand's population has grown strongly over the past 15 years. In particular, its success in combating the pandemic will bring more Kiwis home, while more migrants will arrive when the borders reopen. The population keeps growing, yet the rental market is showing signs of a serious reversal.”
 
2. Research shows: New Zealanders' home ownership (kiwi house) is declining with each generation
 
“A census measure called ‘average household occupancy’ shows that New Zealanders' home ownership, or ‘kiwi house’, is gradually declining from generation to generation, and the figure continues to fall. This means more people are choosing to rent under the pressure of high house prices, and more homes—both rentals and owner-occupied properties—are needed to maintain a stable housing market.”
 
3、Startling figures!
The renting population is rising sharply: 2,000,000 New Zealanders are renting
 
Ashley noted: “Renting in New Zealand dates back 100 years. Today, around 40% of people nationwide choose to rent, which also means we need more rental homes to meet demand in an undersupplied rental market.”
 
Data in a recent report, “Aotearoa: 2020”, shows that in 1991, fewer than a quarter of New Zealand households (22.0%) rented. By the 2018 census, 31.9% of households lived in rental accommodation, equivalent to 1,400,000 New Zealanders choosing to rent. Today, the renting population is approaching 2,000,000, meaning 40% of the country's population chooses to rent. The report shows home ownership falling across all age groups, particularly among people in their 20s and 30s.
 
Has Labour's rise to power pushed rents higher?
The housing crisis will engulf the rental market within years
 
Church said in his commentary: “I know these figures are unpopular among the idealistic left, but they are inescapable facts.”
 
“Continued policies targeting landlords will slow or halt growth in the supply of available rental properties. Rental costs will rise faster under this government than in the past, forcing the government to plan thousands of new rental homes to meet additional demand. This entirely avoidable crisis will engulf the rental market within just a few years,” Church said.
 
Thousands of investors will be “driven out” of the property market
 
Church noted: “These changes will also have another major impact. Over the past 50 years, the first generation of New Zealanders has been preparing for retirement, recognising that the basic state allowance—the pension—is barely enough to meet their needs. Thousands of them have invested in property to supplement their retirement income, because this investment offers greater certainty for their future.”
 
Church said: “Many of these people have private health insurance, reducing pressure on our health system, and continue spending in our economy long after retirement. Under the government's continued pressure, some now face having to invest elsewhere. Most have neither the skills nor the capacity to invest in any sector other than property. Over time, people who would otherwise have entered the property market will become a burden on the state.”
 
Church concluded: “There is no doubt these measures have enormous potential economic consequences, with losses of tens of billions of New Zealand dollars in the years ahead.”

Conclusion: New Zealand's renting population has now passed 2,000,000, accounting for 40% of the total population. With such startling figures, rental markets and house prices would be urgent issues for any country to address. Whatever the government's vision, ordinary people do not want this figure to keep climbing. We want the next generation to live in homes of their own, rather than become renters who cannot afford to buy.