No signs of rental crisis easing

Taranaki’s years-long rental crisis is only getting worse and there are no signs it will ease, a housing charity manager says.

Brian Eriksen, of Community Housing Action Taranaki, said more and more families were living in motels permanently or renting garages from friends and parents. ‘‘It is quite serious and I don’t see any plans to rectify it.’’

The charity has four houses in New Plymouth, and three in Waitara, and provides temporary shelter for families and individuals for up to six weeks.

But Eriksen said people were now staying up to six months. ‘‘They are staying a lot longer ... because there is a shortage of affordable housing. People are paying over 50% of their income towards rent and they can’t live under the present rental market’s conditions.’’

The rental shortage in Taranaki started surfacing in 2019 when people wanting a home turned to campgrounds instead.

But since then things have worsened. The median weekly rent has increased by almost $100 to $545 a week over the past three years. While rent is still cheaper in Taranaki than the major cities, the region had the biggest jump in rents – rising 18% in one year,

Trade Me reported in April.

The number of rentals available for the median weekly rent or under has also dropped 20% since 2019. On Thursday, there were 34 rentals across the district listed on Trade Me for $550 and under. Taranaki property manager Stacey Kemp said she was listing about one new property a month and when fresh properties appeared, they were being fought over by at least 50 applicants.

‘‘In the past two years it got worse. Covid obviously did not help because a lot of owners came back to their properties and prices have risen phenomenally.

‘‘There are not enough rental houses for the number of people out there looking for houses.’’

A possible solution was for the Government to make it easier for investors to buy houses, so these could then be made available to renters, Kemp said. In April last year the Government brought in new regulations to favour firsthome buyers and discourage investors. A 40% deposit rule, alongside the removal of tax deductibility on home loan interest payments, was introduced to cool the housing market down.

Ray White property manager Adrienne Douglas, who won an award for managing about 160 rentals in New Plymouth, said the 40% deposit was too high.

‘‘The Government is going to have to start building complexes and rental houses because to alleviate the rental crisis we need more affordable housing built.

‘‘In New Plymouth, we need more apartment blocks in town.’’

Over her 35 years as a property manager in South Africa and here, she had never seen anything like this rental crisis.

‘‘People are paying over 50% of their income towards rent.’’

Brian Eriksen Housing charity manager