By Matt Ball – PR & Advocacy Manager
Healthy Homes Media Frenzy – and some concerning numbers
The hot news in the media today is Healthy Homes, with the July 1 deadline almost here. We were been asked for comment on a number of stories, including this one over the weekend from Miriam Bell at The Post (paywall) was perhaps the most interesting as it had some new info.
There is remarkably little information aside from anecdotes on how many rentals are compliant, but Miriam was able to find some data. For example, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development’s most recent survey of healthy homes compliance, done in January 2024 “found 17% of landlords said they fully met the standards, while 73% had done things to prepare their property.”
Property inspection company Betta Group shared data from its healthy homes inspections, up to June 2024. That showed only 23.2% of properties achieved an overall compliance pass rate, but the numbers were better when looking at each individual standard.
“Pass rates for the heating, insulation and moisture ingress standards were 83.4%, 73.4%, and 79.0% respectively. Drainage and ventilation pass rates were 69.4% and 66.8%, while the standard with the lowest pass rate was draught-stopping at 50.3%.”
Finally, the Green Building Council provided figures generated by their online HomeFit self-assessment tool, with a sample of 9000 homes.
Their numbers showed “65% of homes need roof insulation upgrades to meet the standard, while 58% need to have floor insulation upgraded.”
Apparently 62% of homes needed ground vapour barriers, 43% of homes needed a bathroom fan while 41% needed a kitchen fan.
Interesting numbers – but are they accurate?
What are we to make of these numbers? Well, they have shortcomings. The HUD and Betta Group numbers are at least a year out of date, so I’m hoping most people will have fully complied by now. The Green Building Council numbers look concerning, but – they’re garbage! I checked on the data and it turns out the numbers apply to rentals and owner occupied properties, as their HomeFit survey covers both. So the numbers are actually meaningless when talking about rentals. It always pays to check.
From the conversations I’ve had with members around the country, I’m confident that all of you will be compliant or mostly compliant. If not, please make sure you get things sorted quickly. There are fines of up to $7,200, and there are some who think that this isn’t high enough. The Federation’s view is that the fine – and other penalties which can be awarded – are certainly high enough to cause considerable pain. Higher penalties aren’t warrented, especially in cases where an investor has tried to comply.
Tony Alexander property investor survey
Tony Alexander’s property investor survey results came out last week, and they don’t make great reading, as Tony summarises in this article. Tony’s argument is that investors are caught in the perfect storm of a weak rental market with a shortage of good tenants, rising costs especially rates, insurance & maintenance, and a weak real-estate market so we can’t sell out. At least not at a top price.
He does make some good points, especially when you consider that more investors are thinking about selling than buying, and a net 40% of investors say it’s hard to find a good tenant compared to 14 months ago when a net 25% were saying it was easy.
That said, I am reminded that wherever I’ve been in the country I have found people who were doing ok, who were still hunting out bargains and buying new investments, and even some people who were getting better rents. It’s a tough market, but it is still possible to do well – get along to your local association meeting and talk to other investors to share your successes or find out what’s working well.
Tony’s pick for a pick-up in the housing market? Second half of 2026.
Housing affordability for first home buyers
A little ray of sunshine, especially if you have kids or grandkids in the market for their first home or investment. I liked this story because it shows that for every cloud there is a silver lining. Especially if, like me, you want young people to be able to get ahead and make a great life for themselves right here in New Zealand, instead of feeling like they have to move off-shore.
A little bit of politics – The Tamaki Makaurau By-Election
Following the very sad death of of Takutai Tarsh Kemp, a by-election is required to fill her now vacant parliamentary seat. The first article I’ve seen on this is by Chris Trotter, a stalwart of the left and always a thoughtful read. As he notes, the election poses some sensitive questions for Labour’s leaders. As he says, “how Chris Hipkins and his colleagues answer those questions will not only have a major impact on their relationship with Te P?ti M?ori, but also with the Greens. Is Labour to be their ally – or their competitor?” Worth a read.
That’s it for this week. If you enjoy Media Links, please pass it on and encourage friends and family to sign up: https://nzpif.co.nz/#mailinglist.
As always, send questions and feedback to me at [email protected]. It’s great to hear from the front lines 🙂
Matt Ball
PR & Advocacy Manager