Nelson letter to Editor by Glenn

[Glenn]

Hi folks.
I thought you might like to read one of my latest letters that got published in the top spot with large heading.
Comments welcome.

I write in response to recent letters from Doreen Morrison and several newspaper articles on the housing situation in Nelson and New Zealand.It is true rents are going up. I dispute that this is a sign of greedy landlords taking advantage. It is primarily caused by the National Government’s tax changes. Nick Smith MP as recently as two weeks ago was still chanting the mantra that the government wanted to discourage investment in rental housing.Well surprise their actions have been successful for a change. New investment in additional rental housing is at an all time low. Just why any government be it left, right, or green would not want their citizens to be adequately housed is beyond belief. When you add the other escalating costs like insurance,rates, and tenant default into the equation something has to break. We private landlords provide 90% of the rental housing stock in Nelson that being 30% of all dwellings. Subsidizing the remaining 10% in the public sector housing with our rates or using our precious public land will only make the situation worse. Does Doreen envisage a tent city along the banks of the Maitai? We too could become another Kathmandu.
Glenn Morris
Secretary Nelson Property Investors Association.

[Davo36]

All good common sense Glenn.

I woner though, how many people will read it and go "Nah, they're just greedy"

It's so much easier to blame someone else for life's problems!

[Glenn]

Thanks Dave. We are still a small city with plenty of people who read the letters to the editor.
I must admit that readership of the newspaper is headed down like it is in the rest of the world.
The back ground to my latest letter is the Nelson Housing Trust ( a self appointed group who are into third sector housing) are using their political power to encourage the city council to fund their enterprise. They preach that tenants should only have to pay income related rents the same as HNZ and the city council does with their pensioner housing. However for their houses they charge 80% of a valuation that some "expert" states is the market rent on their rentals. They recently held a meeting in Nelson and the Dorithy quoted in my letter attended and wrote a letter to the editor pushing their particular view point. My letter was in response to her letter.
Despite having a National Government I can assure you the Helen views are still alive and well in NZ. Landlords are still being targeted as a problem that are being blamed for many of NZ's ills by all sides of the political equation.
Arise fellow citizens. Man the ramparts. Defend your city against the advancing threat of political activists.

[klauster]

Glenn, good thinking, yes of course – “Helen views are still alive” or do government agents change like the government? You meet everywhere the same “concrete” heads, right?

[cube]

tenants should only have to pay income related rents

so long as I only have to pay at income related mortgage, no problem.

[speights boy]

so long as I only have to pay at income related mortgage, no problem.

Do you mean like the bank does when it decides how big your mortgage will be?

[hawkeye]

Tony Brazier wrote a great article in The Press on wednesday along the same lines. It was factual, unemotive and well argued.

The trouble is the herd don't want the facts they would rather believe they are being ripped off by greedy rich people.

Much of the housing shortage problem in Christchurch is that the private landlords are being thwarted at every turn in trying to get their properties available again. We have 15 tenancies that are still down and have no prospect of getting them going for years as they are on the TC3 land. That is just one issue, there is the council, EQC and Insurers all working to their private agendas which doesn't involve doing things quickly.

We are lucky that we weren't highly geared otherwise I would be an undischarged bankrupt now. Many people are at the end of their tether. Winter is tough in broken homes, we are lucky we have a permitted wood burner so we can combat the cold pouring in through the gap where the chimney was removed and there is building paper and one sheet of gib to the outside.

End of short rant

[hawkeye]

And to blame the National government isn't entirely fair- Labour would have added capital gains tax or land tax as well!! (And still will next time they're in). Who knows what state we'd be in if they had done that too.

LAJ

[cube]

Do you mean like the bank does when it decides how big your mortgage will be?

True - luckily they do still take ability to pay in to account somewhat here - in the U.S., your credit score is based on your ability to obtain and hang on to credit; your income doesn't come in to it!

[speights boy]

^ Yeah, smart people those Septic Tanks.
What could possibly could go wrong with a system like that !
Just as well we don't have that non-recourse nonsense they have as well.

[Glenn]

And to blame the National government isn't entirely fair- Labour would have added capital gains tax or land tax as well!! (And still will next time they're in). Who knows what state we'd be in if they had done that too.

LAJ

Good comment about knocking National. I thought I had given some clues to that dilema. The letters to the editor are limited to 200 words so you have to be precise as possible.
I thought I had covered that aspect with this line.
Just why any government be it left, right, or green would not want their citizens to be adequately housed is beyond belief.

I have a good long term relationship with Nick. When he made the comment in the address he was making to our Rotary Club he caught my eye when he said it knowing I might react.
He always asks me how the market is when we meet. I have already told him their policy is stupid.

Is there any good true Blue supporters on the forum that can explain why a National Government wants to discourage investment in rental housing.

[Perry]

Is there any good true Blue supporters on the forum that can explain why
a National Government wants to discourage investment in rental housing.

It's not an answer to the question, Glenn, but I suspect that true-blue
is no longer a political colour. Both reds and blues have moved towards
the centre, creating a miasma of muddy brown. Those on one side of
the swamp are bluey-brown; on the other side they're reddy-brown.

Real blue and real red are no longer to be seen. (Although there is still
some red in the core of the watermelon party)

[Glenn]

(Although there is still
some red in the core of the watermelon party)

I think watermelon tasts horrible when mixed with salt.
My big question to the world is why the sudden hatred and blame of landlords.
It seems to me that this is being driven by the civil servants in treasury and other nutters in places like DSW.
Me thinks Helen must have left a whole lot of red heads under the warm fuzzy blankets in those mirror glass buildings in Wellington.
Perhaps the reflection works both ways. When the manderines look out at the peasants they just see a reflection of themselves and think the rest of us are the same as them.
Surely someone must still love me.
If only they would walk in my shoes for a day and join me when lugging away rubbish and cleaning up after tenants.
Last week we took 14 hours to clean a 2 bedroom flat. The toilet alone took two hours and the stove four.

[Perry]

My big question to the world is why the sudden hatred and blame of landlords.

Is it really sudden? Or has it always been there, but less vocal, less clarion?

We've all posed (and grappled with) the problems, before. If every LL sold up
and out, who is going to house the homeless? How many tents can be pitched
on Blenglish's farm? Who will supply the tents? On and on.

The W'gton woodenheads haven't got a clue between 'em, Glenn. What else can
you expect? Sound thinking is dangerous and discouraged.

[Glenn]

Is it really sudden? Or has it always been there, but less vocal, less clarion?

.

I have it.
In a flash of inspiration.
We need to start up a charm offensive.

Now that would be offensive to the Helenites.
Bring on the trumpets and bag pipes.