Longtime advocate for property investors hangs up his hat
Andrew King has been advocating on behalf of property investors for a quarter of a century but the longstanding president of the NZ Property Investors Federation has finally hung up his hat.
In a letter to members at the start of the month, he recounted some achievements: ‘‘We stopped capital gains taxes being introduced not once, not twice, but three times,’’ he wrote. ‘‘We have continued to halt a rental property warrant of fitness and draconian rental freezes.’’
Other highlights included supporting compulsory smoke alarms and insulation, and most of the Healthy Homes requirements, ‘‘while preventing ridiculously expensive suggestions’’.
Regarded as among the best lobbyists in the country, King was personable, reasonable in his advocacy, and always had a factoid up his sleeve to throw against unfriendly policies (even if these factoids were often created by the federation itself).
King is quite literally riding off into the sunset, on a motorcycle trip with his wife around North, Central and South America. He said his decision to retire was not taken easily and the timing made it more difficult, because he regarded the next election as the greatest reckoning for investors since capital gains taxes were proposed.
That was because of the Government’s policy to strip investors of their ability to deduct mortgage interest from rental incomes for tax purposes. The National Party has promised to reverse the change but if the Labour Party remained in power, King said a federation survey showed the policy could result in a fifth of investors being forced to sell up.
King said his failure to convince the Government not to implement the policy was his greatest regret. ‘‘It does feel a bit like unfulfilled business but, also, I think maybe we need someone new. I think I have done my time.’’
He said the biggest changes he had seen in his career was a shift to landlords regarding their tenants as customers, whom they provided a professional service for.
As home ownership shrank to its lowest level since the 1950s, research shows the number of properties in the hands of investors grew 191% between 1986 and 2018, which was achieved by investors buying existing housing stock rather than through new builds. But King said, in order to increase the supply of houses, ‘‘you don’t actually have to build a house’’. From his perspective, investors buying cheaper existing homes, of the type often bought by first-home buyers, allowed cashedup Baby Boomers to build their own new homes.
King said his proudest moment was encouraging the Winter Energy Payment scheme.
‘‘There were about 43,000 kids who ended up in hospital because they were living in cold, damp houses and we were blamed basically,’’ he said.
‘‘We ... found even when our members were installing heat pumps the tenants were not turning them on.’’