David Farrar: Look at what happens when you ditch rent controls

Newsweek reports:

Argentina’s recent repeal of rent control by libertarian President Javier Milei has led to a surge in housing supply, with the freedom to negotiate contracts, previously restricted, directly causing a drop in rental prices.

So prices have dropped and supply has increased!

Robin Grieve: Go easy on the Greens, they can’t help it

In a reportedly testy exchange between Chloe Swarbrick and David Seymour on the AM show, Chloe Swarbrick took issue with David Seymour’s criticism of the Green’s rental cap policy. David called it right when he said that “Chloe is nice, she will smile and it will sound great, ‘we are fighting for you’, but her policies will have the opposite effect of what they promise, that is why they are so dangerous and that is why they must be kept out of office” he said.

I have never met Chloe Swarbrick but she does seem nice and I believe she genuinely believes that the best way to help renters is to have more control and more regulation. David Seymour is similarly nice and just as earnestly believes that the best way to help renters is to remove controls and regulations so that more people will be landlords and renters will get a better deal because they will have more choice and landlords will have to compete by providing better value to renters.

Michael Bassett: The Greens and the coalition of chaos

It’s hard to suppress my feeling that Green Party MPs inhabit another planet. Their policy announcement at the weekend that they would introduce rent controls and hold increases to 3% pa told me that they know nothing about the history of housing or rent controls, either in New Zealand, or anywhere overseas. The Greens’ great nostrum for helping low income people in 2023 was first tried using a series of Rent Restriction Acts during World War One, more than a century ago. The idea proved to be disastrous. And when revived by the First Labour Government it was no more successful.

Matt Burgess: Oh good - rent control

It is now clear the government’s housing package was not a joke.

The government released the policy shortly before April Fools’ Day. At the time it seemed funny in a Rob Muldoon so-bad-it’s-good kind of way.

But Ministers have since clarified they are not making this up. The government’s housing affordability strategy really is to raise taxes on landlords.

The main item in the package took away landlords’ right to treat interest as a deductible tax expense. The government says these deductions are a loophole.

It turns out this loophole is a massive problem. For centuries, businesses everywhere have been exploiting this loophole by deducting expenses to avoid paying taxes. Something had to be done, obviously.

And landlords have no right to complain. They can still deduct other costs, like stationery.

Reuben Chapple: Rent Controls Rebutted

It's an unfortunate fact of life that during periods of expanded market demand, tenants looking for housing may have to spend weeks or months in an often vain search for a suitable place to live. 

They might end up renting something smaller than they might like, and/or in a less desirable location. Some have reportedly even resorted to bribes to get landlords to move them to the top of waiting lists.  Meanwhile, they may double up with relatives, sleep in garages, or use other makeshift living arrangements.