Making the housing crisis worse was apparently a policy objective.
The National government inherited a housing crisis and, through a combination of landlord-friendly tax changes and a near-total absence of new public housing, managed to make it meaningfully worse. It takes talent to look at a dumpster fire and decide what it really needs is more fuel.
Labour extended the bright-line test to 10 years, meaning property speculators had to pay tax on gains if they sold within a decade. National's first move was to hack it back to 2 years, effectively giving property flippers a green light. Because if there's one thing the New Zealand housing market needed, it was more speculation.
Source: Inland Revenue policy changes, effective July 2024
Landlords can once again deduct mortgage interest from their rental income for tax purposes. This costs the government roughly $2.9 billion over four years — money that goes directly to making property investment more attractive relative to, say, productive enterprise. The government essentially chose to subsidise landlords while telling renters to tighten their belts.
Source: Parliamentary Budget Office, Treasury fiscal updates
The public housing waitlist sat at over 25,000 households through most of 2024-2025. Rather than accelerating builds, the government quietly scaled back Kainga Ora's building programme and introduced income-related rent reviews that pushed some existing tenants towards the private market. If you can't house them, reclassify them — problem solved.
Source: Ministry of Housing and Urban Development quarterly reports
Average rents continued to climb, with the national median hitting over $600/week by mid-2025. The government's response was largely to point at the market and shrug. Tenancy law reforms that might have helped — like rent controls or stronger tenant protections — were dismissed as "not the Kiwi way." The Kiwi way, apparently, is paying 45% of your income to live in a mouldy flat.
Source: Stats NZ rental price index, Tenancy Services bond data
National floated reopening the market to foreign buyers in certain categories, because the one thing missing from Auckland's housing crisis was more offshore capital competing with first-home buyers. To date, this remains "under consideration," which in political terms means "we'll do it when you're not looking."
Source: Various NZ Herald, Stuff reporting on foreign buyer policy discussions