It is time to put things into perspective. Complaining about it isn’t going to help. Let’s face it, if the Government is prepared to completely ignore recommendations and suggestions from economists, Treasury, the Reserve Bank, and lobbyists from all sides1, they are hardly likely to respond well to a bunch of investors having a moan on Facebook about what they are going to do to retaliate (put rents up, evict tenants, etc).

The fact of the matter is that we need tenants, and tenants need us. It is a symbiotic relationship, not a parasitic one.

By far the majority of tenant/landlord relationships are good ones, it is just an unfortunate reality that the good relationships don’t make headlines.

Us And Them Mentality

The Government and parts of the media are successfully creating an “us and them” mentality between what are perceived as the “haves” and the “have nots”. Tall poppy syndrome is alive and well in New Zealand. You need to understand that if you are in a position to be able to own more than one property, you are firmly in the minority in this country, and that in itself is a privilege (whether you worked incredibly hard for it or not is completely beside the point). Less than 3% of New Zealanders own rental properties. Stop giving out sound bites and headlines. Nobody is going to feel sorry for you.

We hear about how hard it is for first home buyers, and I’m not arguing with that. It IS hard to get onto the property ladder, but it is NOT impossible (unless you think it is). Do I believe that property investors are competing with first home buyers though? Any serious investor understands the importance of rental return, and those investors will get outbid by home buyers and Kāinga Ora2 every day of the week.

Rental Crisis

We are currently facing a worse rental crisis in NZ than the housing crisis. Although there are always people who would love to buy their own home but find it increasingly frustrating to do so, the harsh reality is that there are many others who are not even close to being able to purchase a home. They may love to be in a position where they could feel frustrated by missing out on opportunities to buy, but instead they are worrying about how to get a roof over their head. Spare a thought for the tenants who are desperately trying to find a place to rent and every rental home they go to they compete with multiple other hopeful applicants. And the people in emergency accommodation that is woefully inadequate because there simply isn’t enough government housing available. Stats NZ shows that home ownership rates have been decreasing since the 1990s, so we have more people needing rental properties now than ever, and MBIE data shows a drop of over 10,000 investors (approx 8%) since 2015. According to an NZPIF submission to the Government in March 2020, 87% of tenants in NZ rent from a private landlord or trust. The waiting list for emergency housing has increased from 6,182 in December 20173 to over 22,000 to date. We need more private landlords, not less.

Tenants Need Rentals

Maybe instead of fuelling the “us and them” mentality, we should focus on doing what we do well, and that is providing rental accommodation, because no government can provide as many rental properties as is needed in this country. Property investing is still the best way for most Kiwis to improve their financial position over the long term, and if you ask me, that is a justified reward for making any investment.

References: 1. https://www.nzpif.org.nz/news/... 2. https://www.newshub.co.nz/home... politics/2021/04/government-buyshundreds- of-houses-in-direct-competitionwith- first-home-buyers.html 3. https://www.rnz.co.nz/national... programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018758507/ public-housing-waitlist-up-50-percent-onsame- time-last-year

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