One week to go
Party policies at a glance
National
A fully costed comprehensive housing plan, including more homes built faster, planning reform, skills and training, infrastructure provision and the Crown Building Project (see below).
100,000 new homes over the next three years, and 200,000 over the next six years.
Help first-home buyers access KiwiSaver savings, HomeStart grants and Welcome Home Loans.
More social and emergency housing.
Double the financial support available for first-home buyers of an existing house and increase it for new builds.
Make it easier to find land for new builds, introduce fitfor-purpose urban planning laws separate from the Resource Management Act to encourage more responsive planning, faster development, and better protection for the environment in cities.
New planning legislation to have clear and separate objectives for regulating urban and natural environments.
Crown Building Project to deliver 34,000 homes to Auckland over the next 10 years.
$1 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund supports councils in high-growth areas to build infrastructure for large housing subdivisions. Additional funding for the Housing First programme.
Labour
Ban foreign speculators from buying existing New Zealand homes.
Extend the bright-line test from two years to five years.
Target speculators who buy houses with the aim of making a quick profit.
Speculators no longer able to use tax losses on their rental properties to offset their tax on other income.
Build 100,000 high-quality, affordable homes over 10 years, with 50 per cent of them in Auckland.
Standalone houses in Auckland to cost $500,000 to $600,000, with apartments and townhouses under $500,000.
Outside Auckland, houses to range from $300,000 to $500,000.
Require rental properties to meet proper standards in: insulation, heating, ventilation, draught stopping, and drainage.
Invest the money from closing the tax loophole for speculators in grants to help 600,000 families insulate their homes or install a clean, fixed form of heating.
Limit rent increases to once a year, ban all letting fees and abolish ‘‘no-cause’’ terminations of tenancies.
Stop the sale of state houses.
Make Housing New Zealand a public service and increase the number of state houses.
Take action to end homelessness.
Greens
Affordable, decent homes for all.
Ban overseas-based investment on property and introduce a capital gains tax (excluding the family home).
A ‘‘rent-to-buy’’ progressive ownership scheme, with affordable loans to first-home buyers.
A Housing Bonds scheme to support alternative models of housing by community housing providers.
Ban unreasonable letting fees and strengthen renters’ rights, to make renting easier and more secure.
Mandatory rental warrant of fitness.
RestoreWarm Up NZ insulation grants.
End homelessness, partnering with local government and community groups to have ‘‘housing first’’ approach.
NZ First
A permanent Housing Commission to develop a New Zealand Housing Strategy. Establish ‘‘Kiwi Housing’’ to implement the strategy by acquiring and developing residential land delivering affordable smaller, high quality new homes with appropriate land densities, and optimising the use of prefabricated homes to minimise costs.
Target 140,000 new houses for Auckland within 7 to 10 years.
Sell residential sections and built homes to first-home buyers, and some secondchance buyers, on terms over 25 years at 3 per cent interest.
Develop shared equity models and very long-term leases of family-sized apartments.
Legislate to restrict home ownership to citizens and permanent residents.
Require councils to prepare and implement a social housing plan for their district.
Make long-term 2 per cent government loan finance available to local government for provision of council housing through local government-owned housing enterprises.
Simplify and improve the security of tenancies and limit rent increases.
Establish a framework for very long-term tenancies as a desirable alternative to home ownership.
Fund Housing NZ to restore its role as primary social housing provider.
Ma¯ori
Create a Minister for Ma¯ori and Pacific Housing.
Develop a National Housing Strategy.
Establish a Housing Sector Committee within the first 3 months of the next Parliament to co-design a 25-year government-enabled housing strategy.
Target to eliminate homelessness by 2020. Build 90,000 affordable houses by 2022.
Improve the rights of renters.
Freeze rents on all social housing stock and review every five years.
Enforce compulsory annual warrant of fitness for all rental homes.
Introduce a cap on rent increases for all state-owned housing stock and explore rent caps for private rentals.
Review the bond refund system and create fairer and more streamlined processes to get bonds released sooner.
Enable wha¯nau to capitalise on family support allowance as a deposit for a home. Provide low-interest loans. Introduce options for ‘‘rent to buy’’ and ‘‘equity financing’’ for first-time buyers.
Subsidise private developers to include a percentage of affordable housing in their projects.
Increase the numbers of homeowners.
Return to the capitalisation of the family benefit to target support for tamariki and wha¯nau.
ACT
Scrap the Resource Management Act.
Introduce an Urban Development Act to allow more developable land.
Share half the GST from new housing construction to fund infrastructure.
Require builders to pay upfront insurance, instead of councils.
Insurers will be incentivised to find the most reliable builders and best building supplies, to prevent leaky homes and building defects.
TOP
Reform the rental market to make rentals more stable.
Improve the quantity and quality of social housing.
A long-term, viable, not-forprofit social and affordable housing sector. Quality-assured housing. Gift Housing New Zealand stock to community housing providers, giving them the equity for radical expansion of social housing.
Review the current accommodation support payments.
Note: This is a selection of each party’s policy on the five issues, not the full list