Housing policies: A capital gains tax to solar roll outs, rent controls and offsetting residential rental losses

Property policies on the table this election include a range that could impact home owners, landlords and tenants, targeting tax changes, solar power and loans to get on the property ladder. 

Pushed out of the latest Ipsos top four issues by unemployment, housing still remains in the top five, with a fifth of those surveyed viewing it as a top issue for the country. 

Here are housing policies as of October 16: The list includes 10 of the parties' policies relating to housing. All parties that did not have at least 10 were contacted to verify the policy list. Policy documents have been added for parties with more than 10. 

Labour Party

1. Capital Gains Tax - 28% tax on any profit made after July 2027 when a commercial or residential property (excluding the family home) is sold. (No profit made before July 2027 to be taxed). 
2. Remove upfront costs for solar with Government-backed finance, kickstart subsidies, plug-in options for renters and a community battery fund for neighbourhoods
3. Keep interest deductibility for landlords
4. 6000 additional social housing places over four years
5. Raise the Crown guarantee for Community Housing Funding Agency (CHFA) Social Bonds

National Party

1. Widen access to 5% deposit home loans by extending the First Home Loan income cap to $300,000, and apply the income cap to all applicants
2. Abolish the blanket ban on minimum car parking requirements
3. Working with Auckland Council through the Auckland Deal to align housing, infrastructure and economic growth
4. Home Energy Fund - central government, council-backed financing platform offering long-term loans for households to invest in solar, batteries, insulation and other energy resilience measures.
5. Enable electrification in the new planning system

A composite image of Housing Minister Chris Bishop and New Zealand houses. Source: 123rf.com

Green Party

1. Rent controls that limit rent increases to whichever is lower of inflation and average wage increases
2. Require all rental tenancies to be offered as long-term or permanent tenancies
3. Establishing a rental warrant of fitness system 
4. Creating a register for landlords and property managers
5. Build tens of thousands of new public homes, significantly increase accessible public housing stock and fund more papakāinga to be built on whenua Māori
6. Strengthen the Healthy Homes Standards
7. Expand support such as housing first, transitional and supported housing services
8. Establishing a right to housing in legislation that requires the State to ensure all New Zealanders are adequately housed
9. Ensure all government agencies with responsibility for housing are fully responsive to Māori housing priorities, including establishing a co-governance model at the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and Kāinga Ora.
10. Investigate capping the number of houses that may be bought by an individual, private company, or family estate, and by introducing a value uplift levy.

Read the full policy document here.

Greens MP Tamatha Paul. Image source: Mandy Te

New Zealand First 

1. Social housing for citizens first 
2. Development of a 30-year Population Plan to coordinate immigration, housing and infrastructure planning
3. Require fast-track housing developers to detail infrastructure needed or if it exists, is funded, and can be delivered, and make the Minister for Housing responsible for housing project referral decisions. 

ACT

1. Abolish loss ring-fencing for rental properties
2. Allow households to export more power where the network has room
3. Households can sell power to different providers from the one they buy electricity from, or through local businesses and community energy schemes.
4. Exclude "purely spiritual and religious effects" from consenting

Opportunity Party

1. 1.75% annual tax to the value of land. Exemptions may apply to farmers and retirees
2. Implement 10 "simple, nationally consistent" planning zones
3. Create a national pre-approval system for proven prefabricated and modular building methods
4. Update housing laws to make it easier to build a wider mix of homes
5. Expand the Warmer Kiwi Homes programme to cover eligible rentals, and extend it to double glazing, solar and electrification
6. Refund GST to councils on new builds that meet strong environmental standards
7. Raise the minimum Healthy Homes Standards
8. Require all new builds to be wired to accommodate EV charging and solar
9. Give councils, Community Housing Providers, iwi and trusted developers direct access to low-cost government finance when they deliver affordable or social housing
10. Let landowners defer the land value tax for up to two years while their land is under development.

Read the full policy document here.

Opportunity Party leader Qiulae Wong. Image source: Mandy Te

Te Pāti Māori

1. Build 2,000 homes on ancestral Māori land within four years
2. Implement a Stamp Duty of 5% on Residential Sales,
   excluding first home buyers for homes under
   $1 million
3. Allocate 50 percent of all new social housing to Māori
4. Implement a Land Banking Tax of 33%
5. End all sales of freehold land to offshore foreign interests
6. Introduce a Vacant House Tax (2% annually applied to capital value of homes vacant for more than three months in a year)
7. Repeal interest deductibility
8. Enact universal rent control
9. Repeal no-cause evictions

10. Increase funding for Sustaining Tenancies (service for tenants who are at risk of losing their home).

    Read the full policy document here.