“All it does is make the supply of rental property go down and rental prices go up.”

“We were pretty shocked when we saw the announcement,” says Andrew King of the NZ Property Investors Federation.
Investors will no longer be able to offset interest paid on home loans against their rental income, which will significantly increase their tax bills.
“Quite a few investors, tens of thousands of investors, will be negatively affected by this,” economist Tony Alexander says.
Investors were shocked, and potentially down the track, renters may be too.
“All it does is make the supply of rental property go down and rental prices go up. I can’t see that it’s going to be in tenants’ best interest,” King says.
But the Government’s announcement cleared the way for property developers.
“I think there’s a lot of positives about it but as an industry, we need to see more information,” says Blair Chappell, managing director of Williams Corporation.
The Government will invest $3.8 billion to increase housing supply and will work with local government to connect infrastructure with land, making it build-ready. But heads are being scratched as to how it will actually look.
“There’s no information for media as to whether it will roll out, how it works, how to apply, what the cost-share will be, what it will cover, and what it won’t cover,” Chappell says.
A beacon of hope for first-home buyers, casting a potential shadow of despair for renters.