The Bill extends default tenancy terms, gives tenants first right of refusal when their tenancy agreement is up for renewal, limits rent increases and enforces transparency around them, and restores 90-day notice periods when landlords want to sell properties. 453,000 homes were rented by New Zealanders at the 2013 census. “People who rent need stability so they can put down roots in their communities,” Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei said. “Our home ownership rate is at the lowest level since...

Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei has today launched a progressive ownership plan to provide up to 10,000 new homes for lower-income Kiwis to own, and to empower community housing groups with new financing models to help fix the housing crisis.

Children in Auckland are falling ill with rheumatic fever as a direct result of the Government’s failure to address the housing crisis and child poverty, the Green Party said today. Figures released today show the number of children with rheumatic fever in the Auckland and Waitemata district health board areas has stayed at the same level, despite a Rheumatic Fever Prevention Programme running for five years now. “This is a stark reminder that the housing crisis isn’t going away, and...

The Government’s Auckland housing plans lack substance and are years behind where they should be, the Green Party said today. Bill English has said he has no information about how much land he plans to sell off as part of planned redevelopments, and can’t say how many new houses will be sold at affordable prices, in answers to written parliamentary questions from the Green Party. “The Minister responsible for Housing NZ has no idea how much land he’s going to...

A new national median of over half-a-million dollars puts a first home well out of reach for too many New Zealanders, the Green Party said today.

Reports that Housing New Zealand is about to run out of money, just as it’s supposed to be building new houses to alleviate the housing crisis, is a symptom of National’s economic mismanagement, the Green Party said today. “Bill English has run Housing New Zealand into the ground and now he’s going to have to do an emergency bail-out,” Green Party Co-leader James Shaw said. “Bill English should have used Housing New Zealand to kick-start a Government-building programme back in...

Bill English owes it to prospective first-home buyers to name a price for the houses the Government is proposing to build and sell in Auckland, the Green Party said today. “Aucklanders need to be able to trust the Government to build houses they can afford, but so far National hasn’t delivered on anything they’ve promised,” Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei said. “If the Government’s plan to fix the housing affordability crisis is to build houses that will sell at market...

 

Labour, the Green Party and the Māori Party are calling on the Government to immediately adopt the 20 recommendations set out in today’s Ending Homelessness in New Zealand report. This morning, the Cross-Party Inquiry into Homelessness has released its final report. Over the last several months the Inquiry has received hundreds of written and oral submissions from around New Zealand, which have been brought together into one report along with a set of 20 recommendations. Notable recommendations include: Rolling out...

Bill English should release the details of the new houses he says will be built by the Government, including how affordable they’ll actually be, the Green Party said today. Finance Minister Bill English has announced that the Government’s building programme in Auckland will increase under the Unitary Plan, after years of insisting the Government shouldn’t be building houses itself. “It looks like National may have finally discovered how to build houses, just in time for the election next year, but...