One of the country’s political parties has announced a policy aimed at opening an additional avenue to home ownership for those locked out of the market
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UnitedFuture has put forward a new rent-to-own policy to help New Zealanders who are struggling to break into the housing market.
UnitedFuture leader, Hon Peter Dunne says their plan is simple. “We would allocate half of the affordable houses being constructed under the Government’s building programme in Auckland to be included in a new rent-to-own scheme that would provide a new opportunity to people who have difficulty in meeting the financial requirements around buying a house.
“We would offer these houses as rental properties that people could lease, provided they lived in that property and pay market rent,” said Dunne.
Under UnitedFuture’s rent-to-own policy, half of the 20,600 homes the Government intends to build in Auckland as affordable homes would be offered as rental properties.
Part of the rent amount would be paid to the Government to cover fixed costs (such as rates) and deliver some income to the Government, while the balance of the rent would then go towards purchasing a share of ownership in the house in question.
Through this scheme, rental payments would act as mortgage payments, moving tenants closer towards owning an increasing share of a property. Once they own enough to count as a deposit, they will be offered the title to the property and then can find the finance needed such as a bank mortgage.
Dunne said that this policy was aimed at people who were currently shut out of the market by prohibitive deposit requirements.
“A generation of New Zealanders are facing the prospect of home rental for the rest of their live and this policy would put them on a pathway towards home ownership,” he said.
“The rent people pay would be accumulated as savings earmarked for a home deposit. There is not that much difference in principle between this policy and the Government’s plan to build affordable houses to sell. What we are changing is the way they are sold and who they are sold to; we want to see specific targeting of people who are struggling to save for a deposit and pay their rent at the same time.
“This is a first step in opening up new avenues for housing affordability. I would hope that it could be expanded into other centres where Central and Local Governments have accommodation building programmes and indeed be used as a template for private housing developers, who would benefit from the ongoing and secure stream of revenue this policy would provide,” Dunne said.
UnitedFuture leader, Hon Peter Dunne says their plan is simple. “We would allocate half of the affordable houses being constructed under the Government’s building programme in Auckland to be included in a new rent-to-own scheme that would provide a new opportunity to people who have difficulty in meeting the financial requirements around buying a house.
“We would offer these houses as rental properties that people could lease, provided they lived in that property and pay market rent,” said Dunne.
Under UnitedFuture’s rent-to-own policy, half of the 20,600 homes the Government intends to build in Auckland as affordable homes would be offered as rental properties.
Part of the rent amount would be paid to the Government to cover fixed costs (such as rates) and deliver some income to the Government, while the balance of the rent would then go towards purchasing a share of ownership in the house in question.
Through this scheme, rental payments would act as mortgage payments, moving tenants closer towards owning an increasing share of a property. Once they own enough to count as a deposit, they will be offered the title to the property and then can find the finance needed such as a bank mortgage.
Dunne said that this policy was aimed at people who were currently shut out of the market by prohibitive deposit requirements.
“A generation of New Zealanders are facing the prospect of home rental for the rest of their live and this policy would put them on a pathway towards home ownership,” he said.
“The rent people pay would be accumulated as savings earmarked for a home deposit. There is not that much difference in principle between this policy and the Government’s plan to build affordable houses to sell. What we are changing is the way they are sold and who they are sold to; we want to see specific targeting of people who are struggling to save for a deposit and pay their rent at the same time.
“This is a first step in opening up new avenues for housing affordability. I would hope that it could be expanded into other centres where Central and Local Governments have accommodation building programmes and indeed be used as a template for private housing developers, who would benefit from the ongoing and secure stream of revenue this policy would provide,” Dunne said.
