If landlords were the applicants

Finally, after years of being tormented by my fellow southern mayors for being the only one not capable of writing a column for The Southland Times, I’m getting my chance.

I can’t believe my luck in standing alongside such literary luminaries as Hicks and Tonker, and that other new boy from Central that looks a bit like me, but shorter and stockier.

I’m as excited as a wee school kid, so here goes.

I thought my first attempt should tell you a bit about myself and the way I think.

As mayor of the economic powerhouse that is the Clutha District, I know I am extremely lucky to have my chance, during a time of comparative buoyancy in the south, to be part of a bigger machine that is making genuine headway.

Sure there are challenges and there always will be, but there are just so many opportunities at the moment, with jobs a-plenty, confidence, and a noticeable upbeat change in many young people as they see their chance and gather their resources to grasp the opportunities.

At the heart of so many of our challenges is our own housing crisis, and yes the south is having issues; not the same as Auckland and Queenstown, but I have seen with my own eyes people sleeping in tents in minus 5 degrees Celsius and working through the day.

The change has come on fast for us and for many there is extreme compromise.

It’s very hard to find accommodation.

We too are seeing the ‘‘Full Up’’ sign wherever we go in Clutha, with rentals being nigh on impossible to find and strength to our housing market unprecedented for over a generation.

As a nation we have failed woefully to firstly acknowledge that this problem exists, and then to do something about it.

I have long held an opinion on how this problem could be alleviated.

Now I know many of you will be thinking, whoop de doo, ‘‘a mayor with an opinion’’, but hear me out because my perspective may be different a one.

Ever since I worked in shearing sheds my wife and I have been landlords.

This poses a conundrum - I’m a capitalist with a social conscience.

Back 30 years ago when we first became landlords there was a direct tie between rentals and wages.

If you were earning $500 we could charge about $100 a week rent, and consequently would pay about $50,000 for a flat.

It was all tied in and market forces prevailed.

Then the rent supplement was introduced and I thought that was great, people in need were going to get assistance.

But that’s not how it’s turned out.

Time has shown me that the tenants ultimately never see the money.

It is channelled directly to landlords like us, who no longer are restrained by wages and market reality.

Ultimately greed is the only true restraint on rental increases.

Now with the taxpayer supplementing the landlord’s needs, rentals have skyrocketed, but no longer can we pay $50,000 for a flat because with such high rents we can afford to pay considerably more for a flat, and in doing so squeeze so many people out the house market.

My suggestion is that it should be landlords, not the tenants, who apply for the rent supplement.

And in order to get this supplement we must agree to two minimum pre-requisites; a decent standard of rental accommodation, and reasonable rent increases.

It strikes me as a win/ win.

The system would be far more efficient as a landlord over the years has many tenants but would only have to make one original application.

The tenants would have a greater degree of certainty over future costs and not having to go through what could be a demeaning process to apply for money that they never see.

And by pulling into line the only market force that has detached from reality the long term game would see house prices fall back into line with sustainable economic forces.

I would love to hear what people’s thoughts are on this, as to date I have seen very little new proposals that have any chance of fundamentally changing the present trajectory of house prices, and our young deserve a bit better from old capitalists like me.

And if I don’t hear anything then I will just crawl back into my bunker and wait for my fellow mayors to ring and remind me that I should leave the thinking up to them.

And that would truly be a bitter pill to swallow.

At the heart of so many of our challenges is our own housing crisis, and yes the south is having issues; not the same as Auckland and Queenstown, but I have seen with my own eyes people sleeping in tents in minus 5 degrees Celsius and working through the day.

Bryan Cadogan is Clutha District Mayor and, not before time, a new columnist on our mayoral roster.