Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Matt Ball: Property Investors Federation Advocacy Manager on Labour's rent-to-own scheme

Transcript

Matt Ball: Property Investors Federation Advocacy Manager on Labour's rent-to-own scheme · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Labour's rent-to-buy scheme.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: It would let Kāinga Ora tenants save $ 100 a week
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: off their rent, and they would save that towards a deposit,
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: which they could then use to purchase the property they're
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: living in. Every home that we sell to the existing tenant,
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: we need to build three houses alongside that.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Matt Ball, New Zealand Property Investors Association, with us this morning. Matt,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: good morning. Federation, I should say. Good to have you
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: on the show, Matt. Yeah, morning, Ryan.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me on.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: So does this work, this kind of thing?
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Look, it's quite a niche scheme, but it is a
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: good idea. It's a new idea. So part of the
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: other scheme was the 5% deposits. That's exactly the same
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: as national scheme to encourage people into new homes. The
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: rent-the-buy is a new idea. It's quite a good one,
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: but it's quite niche is the criticism I would have
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: of it, that it's just state tenants, not all working renters.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: And you presumably, because it would take you, what, five,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: ten years to actually save up for a deposit on
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: a house at that, depending on where you live, I suppose,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: and the value of the property, but you'd have to
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: be in a state house for a long time for
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: that to be realised, right?
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. I guess it's a bit of an
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: incentive to stay in a state house, isn't it, to
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: stay in that house, get your 5% deposit built up,
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: and then buy it. So, yes, it's an incentive for
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: people to stay there.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: And what about the, you mentioned the 5% thing, because
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: that is a national policy already.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Well, it's a government policy already.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: You can get this where you only need 5% rather
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: than the 20%. And the cap would be increased on
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: income from 150K for two people to 300K for two people.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Do you risk a sort of.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: A negative equity situation when you start offering these incentives?
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: It's happened a little bit in Australia. Yeah.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess you could say that. That is possible.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: I mean, we are kind of expecting house prices to
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: start increasing, so you might not quite get that negative equity.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: I mean, as incomes rise, as general inflation rises, you
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: might expect house prices to go up by 2% or 3%.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: So that's probably not the biggest thing there. Another criticism
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: I would say of this policy is that they're going
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: to build three for every one that they sell. That
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: doesn't appear to be funded, so I'm not sure where
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: the money's coming for that. And if I was designing
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: a perfect scheme for labour, I would have said, hey,
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: why don't you make it for all working families, all
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: working people? So whether you're in a kanga or a
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: home or a private home, that you could get this
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: $ 100 a week deposit credit on top of your rent,
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: and that follows you wherever you go.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: It might be a little bit expensive, do you think?
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: It could be expensive, Brian, yes. But that's not my job.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: No, no, you're just playing the let's hand it out
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: and win some votes card there.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Aren't you?
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I suppose you can say this is on
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: the money side. It's a giveaway money. It's not growing
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: the pie policy. But, you know, it's an interesting policy.
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: One of the issues with people buying a first home
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: is the deposit, and that addresses that issue. So in
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: that sense, it's quite good.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Matt Ball, Property Investors Federation.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: to News Talk ZB from 5 a.m.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Weekdays or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.