Housing Minister Chris Bishop (left) and Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka (right) taking questions at a Select Committee. Photo: Anneke Smith
Housing Minister Chris Bishop is encouraging tenants to negotiate a cheaper deal as rent prices drop.
Rental prices fell their lowest level in two years in September, prompting some landlords to offer incentives to entice people to viewings.
Speaking after a Select Committee on housing on Wednesday afternoon, Bishop said renters should be taking advantage of the market.
"I'd encourage people to go and negotiate with their landlord and if they think they can get lower rent, they should, because that'll be good for them and it will be good for their own back pocket.
"I had a guy say to me yesterday that he was paying $650 a week and in his apartment building he found two apartments for rent in the same building at $600, exactly the same apartment.
"[He] rang his landlord up and said, 'oi, I'm on $650 these are going for $600, I could move'. Rent got lowered to $600 straight away."
Bishop said the ever-escalating rents had been a cultural problem that had plagued the country for two decades.
"So the idea that it goes the other way, that the power is actually in the hands of tenants to go and negotiate with landlords, rather than what was been the status quo for too long, which is basically people lining up and fighting like a herd of cats to get into a rental property... those days, at the moment, anyway, are over, and actually the power is in the hands of tenants.
"That's quite unusual. My message to tenants is, use it."
Quizzed on 1500 more houses
Earlier in the Select Committee, Bishop was asked a question from Labour's Kieran McAnulty about whether the government was on track to meet its promise of building 1500 new houses by June 2027, and 550 in 2026.
"Yes, that's the advice I've had. Subject to the fact that things move around a bit, there'll be some stuff that will inevitably slip. That's the nature of construction," the Minister replied.
"Some of the feedback that I'm sure Kāinga Ora may mention to you is that they are struggling with consenting, for example, with councils, and there have been delays in some projects because they are having difficulties with council consents."
McAnulty pushed Bishop on this answer by presenting an aide memoire that showed officials warned the Minister about risks to his delivery timeframe in August this year.
McAnulty: "It quite clearly shows that only 337 are set to be delivered in the 2025/26 financial year, 609 in 2026/27 but 462 of those are after the deadline of 30 June 2027. It still doesn't add up to the amount that you've funded."
Bishop: "As I say, there's always the risk of slippage. We'll be working hard to make sure those houses are delivered but I don't control consenting and I also don't control the construction sector... all I can do is approve the funding and hold people's feet to the flame and make sure they get on with it."
Prisoners should get housing support after release - Bishop
The Green Party's Tamatha asked Bishop what the government's position on the role of public housing was, and if it intended on continuing to fund state houses.
Bishop said while one of his "driving ambitions" in government was to fix the housing crisis, it didn't mean pulling back public safety nets.
"There will always be people with addiction challenges, people with mental health, people leaving prison, people exiting youth justice facilities and or just on the simple grounds of unaffordability, there will always be people who the government should step in to support.
"That's not up for debate, that is government policy and always will be. The question is, what is the most effective form of that support and I reject the view that the government has to do everything.
"We can work with the Salvation Army, we can work with our fantastic community housing providers up and down the country, we can work with iwi, we can work with Māori land trusts, some of whom do a fantastic job.
"There's a whole range of different people we can and should work with government money. It doesn't have to be all delivered by the state."
Bishop said he was particularly interested in how to better support newly-released prisoners, though he did not commit any policies or money to the idea.
"One of the areas I'm particularly passionate about is prisoners who leave prison and bounce out of the corrections facilities and often have nowhere to go and inevitably end up committing crime and end up back in the prison system.
"I would like to see us as a country do far more for those people, because the most expensive form of social housing the government provides is prison. It's the most expensive roof over someone's head."
Ministers pushed on youth homelessness
Paul also asked Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka about youth homelessness, off the back of a State of the Street report that found rough sleeping was getting worse.
She pointed out there was no youth transitional housing in Rotorua, Napier, Taupō, Gisborne, Kaikohe, Whangārei or the North Shore, asking the Minister what his message to people in those areas was.
"There's severe housing deprivation and quite a degree of homelessness in different places throughout the country and youth homelessness is not adjacent to that. It's actually part of some of the severe housing deprivation that people are facing," Potaka said.
The Minister said providers were doing great work and the government was funding placements for homeless young people, but challenges remained.
"Part of that is whānau disconnect and some other challenges, whether they're mental health or otherwise. In the most recent announcements in December, some of that money got allocated out to Mā Te Huruhuru to help support with some transitional housing in Tāmaki Makaurau. Is it enough?
"Well, we'll see how that goes but certainly, we've been really encouraged that they've got that putea allocated out to different entities and organisations who are there to support not just youths, but actually all whānau and others that are facing the severe housing deprivation."
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