With a sense of significant relief, New Zealand’s first-ever three-party coalition government has been announced, after the second-longest negotiation period in New Zealand MMP history.
Parliament will resume on December 5, 2023.
I have linked both agreements, one between National and Act and one between National and NZ First, below:
The full Ministerial List can also be viewed here: https://assets.nationbuilder.com/nationalparty/pages/18466/attachments/original/1700778610/Final_Ministerial_List.pdf?1700778610
Chris Bishop is the appointed Minister of Housing, and Tama Potaka is the Associate Minister of Housing.
Key property points I have noted thus far:
- National’s foreign buyers’ tax will not go ahead.
- Act’s policy to speed up the restoration of interest deductibility has been adopted. Landlords can duly expect to be able to claim 60% of their home loan interest costs against rental income in the 2023/24 financial year, 80% the following year, before 100% in 2025/26.
- No-cause terminations will be reinstated on basis of a 90-day notice for tenants on periodic agreements.
- Tenant’s notice period will return to 21 days and landlords to 42 days if the tenant wished to move and landlord wished to sell property.
- We can expect pet bonds to be introduced, to make it easier for tenants to have pets.
It is also stated that Labour’s replacements for the RMA will be repealed by Christmas, and new resource management laws will be “premised on the enjoyment of property rights as a guiding principle”.
As-always, we will continue to monitor related press releases and proposed legislative changes closely; and our team will ensure our clients are kept at the forefront of implementation.
