New Zealanders Struggling to Find a Home

New rules to curb investment took effect this month, but our Human Rights Commission says successive governments have failed us. Sasha Borissenko spoke to some New Zealanders about their experience of finding a home for Al Jazeera.

Under the new law, property investors will no longer be able to deduct mortgage interest from their taxable incomes.

The Government is trying to focus on re-establishing housing’s primary role as a home rather than a financial asset and address the country’s housing shortage, soaring property prices, and homelessness, Borissenko reports.

The move follows a rise in house values of 145 per cent during the past 10 years, according to Real Estate Institute New Zealand. Rental rates have also risen – by 37 per cent in the last 10 years, according to Statistics New Zealand.

Nigel Mander, a former professional clown in his sixties, has been renting since his mother passed away 12 years ago.

“We need to change people’s attitudes around housing,” Manders says. “There are certainly enough houses to go around, but when greed comes into play, where people decide to own 20 houses or to keep them empty because it’s less hassle than renting them out, that’s what I have a problem with.”

Original article by Sasha Borissenko, Al Jazeera, October 4, 2021.

Photo by Adana Hulett.