Try as the government likes, they just can’t keep a good landlord down. That is because there are so few of them these days: they are a rapidly dying breed, exiting the market in droves and taking their tax free capital gains with them. But those that remain in the market are doing well and are now receiving returns on their investments that exceed their wildest dreams. All thanks to a socialist government that, in trying to make life better and supposedly fairer for tenants has made most rental properties unaffordable to all except those on really good incomes with excellent references. The government, unexpectedly, couldn’t have done more for determined landlords if they had tried.
And now they have improved the lot for landlords yet again.
Tenants around the country are looking at rent increases of up to 30 percent as a freeze comes to an end, says a renters advocacy group.
The Government put a stop to rent increases from the start of the COVID-19 lockdown in March until Friday – meaning landlords can now increase rental prices for the first time since the initial lockdown.
Renters United’s Ashok Jacob – who is facing a rent increase himself – said some tenants were now facing rises of $100 per week.
“People all over the country are saying that their rent is increasing by 20 or 30 percent as soon as the freeze is over – almost as if to make up the rent they could have increased [by] over the break.
“We’re agitating for an end to that kind of cruelty and inhumane treatment.”
This is nothing to do with “cruelty and inhumane treatment”. It is market forces. Landlords have been unable to increase rents for the last 6 months, and so are making up for it now. Tenants will have little choice: either they pay up or there will be someone else who will. It may seem cruel and inhumane, but it is the unintended consequence of an ideological government that think they can control markets because they say so. It doesn’t work like that.
Things are likely to get even worse for tenants, as the Residential Tenancies Act now allows only one rent increase a year. There are likely to be steep increases on the horizon for tenants from now on.
They never learn though, do they?
Green Party co-leader James Shaw said those limits were a good start, but perhaps they had not gone far enough.
“I’m appalled at some of the stories I’ve heard about increases that some of the landlords are planning to do. If we are going to get through this crisis I think people need to treat each other like human beings and just be a bit reasonable about what’s going on here.
“Frankly if some of the stories that we’re hearing come to a reality then yes, we are going to need to look at other regulatory measures.“
‘Other regulatory measures’ that will drive more landlords to sell on an overheated property market, you mean? Regulatory measures that will result in even fewer available rental properties, while the waiting list for state housing soars and the government does little or nothing about building more social houses, even though they talk about it a lot?
This government’s ill-concealed hatred of landlords has created the worst homelessness problem in this country of all time, and it is not going to be solved quickly. More regulation will only make the situation worse. You have to feel some sympathy for good tenants who are paying through the nose for this government’s ineptitude. Bad tenants have no chance. Landlords won’t touch them, and thanks to this government, they don’t have to either.
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