00:00:00
Speaker 1: 11 past five. Labour wants to bring back the ban on no-cause evictions as part of its new renters policy. It also wants to give tenants more notice before landlords can biff them out. And it wants to stop insurers demanding more than two rental property inspections a year. Mike Atkinson is the director of Aspire Property Management and with us.
00:00:18
Speaker 2: Hi, Mike. Hi, how are you doing?
00:00:21
Speaker 1: I'm well, thanks. What do you make of the policy?
00:00:23
Speaker 2: Well, it's a bit of a rerun of their policy from the last election, and we all know how that story played out. It ended with rents up $ 100 a week for tenants.
00:00:33
Speaker 1: So what part of it do you think in the latest iteration drives up rents?
00:00:38
Speaker 2: Whenever you make it more difficult to be a landlord or you pass on any costs, so there's another little element of healthy homes in there, but they are just going to make it a bit more difficult to be a landlord. And then some of them leave the market and the rents go up for everybody else.
00:00:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, the healthy homes part is requiring proper curtains and blinds, which sounds nice, but is ridiculous, isn't it? Because if you move into a rental, do you keep the landlord's blinds and curtains?
00:01:01
Speaker 2: Yes. Well, yeah, we've got 1,300 properties that we manage, and I can't think of one where there's a missing curtain that would be sorted out by this policy.
00:01:10
Speaker 1: Okay. What do you make, though, of the insurers not being able to demand anything more than six monthly updates?
00:01:17
Speaker 2: I actually really like that policy. The insurance companies all put clauses into their policies a few years ago saying that you had to inspect every quarter. And it was just a way for them to try to get out of claims so that if a landlord had missed an inspection or hadn't done one, they could say, sorry, we're not covering you. So I actually think that is a really good policy change.
00:01:36
Speaker 1: I imagine it's reasonably frustrating to go for the flip-flopping that's happening here between Labour and National.
00:01:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, that's the thing. They're basically saying we're going to go back to the old rules that we had. So for everybody, it's just like a total reset back to the way it was three years ago. And it was just the rental market has been really quite good for tenants over the last three years. Rents have only gone up $ 15 a week. And I just think with all the other things that we've got going on in the economy at the moment, the last thing we need to be doing is pulling any levers on the rental market.
00:02:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, too right. Hey, Mike, as always, good to talk to you.
00:02:05
Speaker 2: Thanks, mate.
00:02:06
Speaker 1: Mike Atkinson, Aspire Property Management Director.
Speaker 1: 11 past five. Labour wants to bring back the ban on no-cause evictions as part of its new renters policy. It also wants to give tenants more notice before landlords can biff them out. And it wants to stop insurers demanding more than two rental property inspections a year. Mike Atkinson is the director of Aspire Property Management and with us.
00:00:18
Speaker 2: Hi, Mike. Hi, how are you doing?
00:00:21
Speaker 1: I'm well, thanks. What do you make of the policy?
00:00:23
Speaker 2: Well, it's a bit of a rerun of their policy from the last election, and we all know how that story played out. It ended with rents up $ 100 a week for tenants.
00:00:33
Speaker 1: So what part of it do you think in the latest iteration drives up rents?
00:00:38
Speaker 2: Whenever you make it more difficult to be a landlord or you pass on any costs, so there's another little element of healthy homes in there, but they are just going to make it a bit more difficult to be a landlord. And then some of them leave the market and the rents go up for everybody else.
00:00:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, the healthy homes part is requiring proper curtains and blinds, which sounds nice, but is ridiculous, isn't it? Because if you move into a rental, do you keep the landlord's blinds and curtains?
00:01:01
Speaker 2: Yes. Well, yeah, we've got 1,300 properties that we manage, and I can't think of one where there's a missing curtain that would be sorted out by this policy.
00:01:10
Speaker 1: Okay. What do you make, though, of the insurers not being able to demand anything more than six monthly updates?
00:01:17
Speaker 2: I actually really like that policy. The insurance companies all put clauses into their policies a few years ago saying that you had to inspect every quarter. And it was just a way for them to try to get out of claims so that if a landlord had missed an inspection or hadn't done one, they could say, sorry, we're not covering you. So I actually think that is a really good policy change.
00:01:36
Speaker 1: I imagine it's reasonably frustrating to go for the flip-flopping that's happening here between Labour and National.
00:01:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, that's the thing. They're basically saying we're going to go back to the old rules that we had. So for everybody, it's just like a total reset back to the way it was three years ago. And it was just the rental market has been really quite good for tenants over the last three years. Rents have only gone up $ 15 a week. And I just think with all the other things that we've got going on in the economy at the moment, the last thing we need to be doing is pulling any levers on the rental market.
00:02:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, too right. Hey, Mike, as always, good to talk to you.
00:02:05
Speaker 2: Thanks, mate.
00:02:06
Speaker 1: Mike Atkinson, Aspire Property Management Director.
