Trying to defy Gravity?

[flyernzl]

"Wellington Mayor Justin Lester promises council will intervene in rental market as rents surpass Auckland's

And now Mayor Justin Lester and councillor Brian Dawson want "Mum-and-Dad" property investors to lease their houses to the city council so they can be turned into affordable rentals."

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/114820259/wellington-mayor-justin-lester-promises-council-will-intervene-in-rental-market-as-rents-surpass-aucklands

So the council would lease the properties from private owners - presumably at market price, otherwise why would the owners do it.

And then the Council would rent out the properties at below-market levels?

So who would make up the difference - ratepayers?


And then go on to this bit:
"In Masterton social housing provider Trust House managed to influence rents by becoming one of the largest landlords in the city. It then charged rents below the median paid by the poorest renters.

Trust House general manager Craig Thomson said that had an impact on the market at first but with the turnover of tenants so low that influence had waned."

Of course.
Any idiot should know that once the fortunate group of tenants have moved into below-market subsidised housing they are going to hang on in there like grim death and never move out again.
Anything else would cost them far more, so everyone else not in that group misses out.

[Perry]

You do have to wonder what occupies the space between their ears.
Ah well, symptom-chasing is what distracts the woodenheads of all ilks.

[elguapo]

Trust House general manager Craig Thomson said that had an impact on the market at first but with the turnover of tenants so low that influence had waned."
.

That's funny. Imagine the shock when people snap onto a property rented below market rate and wont let it go without a fight. I mean, there is only a hundred years or more data on the negative impacts of rent control in places like New York.

This was the conclusion of a study on San Francisco's rent controls...

"They found that while San Francisco's rent control laws benefited tenants who had rent controlled units, it also resulted in landlords removing 30% of the units in the study from the rental market, (by conversion to condos or TICs) which led to a 15% citywide decrease in total rental units, and a 7% increase in citywide rents"

[Perry]

The only things that should surprise us at these loony scheme by intellectual numpties is that we're surprised.

And wont the ratepayers so enjoy picking up the tab?!?

[artemis]

Heaven knows how Mr Lester plans to implement such a scheme. On past experience of Labour politicians (which he is) it is slogans first then try to figure out the practicalities.

In Wellington, a lot of housing is owned by the Wellington CC and it is supposed to be paid for by the portfolio not the ratepayers. I would put money that some or all of the admin costs (for example) are buried in council budgets. Council owned rentals do not attract social housing income related rents (subsidised by the taxpayer to the tune of nearly $300pw on average), but in Wellington council tenants do pay up to market rent depending on income*.

Wellington CC had a massive injection of taxpayer funding a few years ago to upgrade its housing over 20 years. To be matched by the council from rental income. Surprisingly /sarc the taxpayer money was spent first and guess what, the council contribution was all spent well before the 20 years was up.

Meantime the council has figured out how to offload the burden of money and tenants to Housing NZ by long term leases of some complexes. So the council escapes and the taxpayers stump up that $300 average pw subsidy.

*Last year some tenants complained bitterly when they were asked to produce bank records to confirm their income so rent could be established.

[Bob Kane]

That's a dreadful thing to promise in order to get re-elected.
Lester deserves to be roasted for such a cheap bribe.
He could never implement it which is why he has promised it - all fluffy and nice words which will be ignored after the election.
His plan needs to be examined closely by the media and exposed.
Let's see if any reporter will do that.

[Perry]

Don't hold your breath. Modern media have long-since abdicated their role as fourth estate watchdogs.