Landlords and investors still in sights of anti-investment sentiment

Throughout last year, house prices continued to rise across the country, he says. “This had the government scrambling for ideas to try and curtail the galloping property market, and resulted in the introduction of some arguably half-baked policies.

“We still don’t have final legislation for the interest non-deduction rules, although they are already law, and this has of course caused uncertainty and confusion.”

He says councils are now having to rush through their proposals for introducing the changes to the RMA, which will allow three houses of up to three storeys high to be built on most residential sections throughout the country.

“It seems that while the idea of allowing intensification in the main and smaller centres is generally agreed to be a good one, the execution hasn’t been well thought through and could result in some inappropriate outcomes, such as ruining the character of neighbourhoods and having high-density housing built in areas where it isn’t really required, e.g. outskirts of cities away from main transport routes.”