Thank you for inviting me.  It's a pleasure to be here.

Wellington Property Investors' Association, like other similar associations around the country, plays an important role in helping provide housing.

Your network offers valuable advice and support to members and enables effective communication between individuals and businesses and others in a constantly changing market.

This government wants to see the association, your members and your businesses thrive.

The economic downturn will have affected your businesses, as it has others across the economy.

I want to ensure that you are able ride out the current economic difficulties and to take new opportunities when recovery begins.

Government priorities

The government's priority is to ensure letting accommodation is not too tough for the thousands of property investors who provide houses for almost one third of the population.

We are committed to ensuring that legislation supports private sector rental options and encourages the supply of affordable and decent rental housing.

To achieve this we will:

Retain the status quo on capital gains tax

Retain deductions for those whose rental properties run at a loss, as these provisions are also available to a number of other investment types.

Action has been taken to streamline existing law and to introduce new measures.

These changes will help the supply of accommodation from the private sector while enabling it to be better managed now, and in the future.

Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill

The Bill, introduced to Parliament last month, promotes personal responsibility and choice.

It updates and clarifies existing rental laws in response to significant changes in the structure and nature of the residential market.

And it adjusts the balance of the Residential Tenancies Act enabling landlords to manage their properties effectively while ensuring tenants have access to stable, good quality accommodation.

It will protect some of our most vulnerable people - those living in boarding houses - but addresses risks borne by landlords who provide rental accommodation.

The Bill will:

Extend the Act to more people involved in renting - for example those in boarding houses.

Clarify responsibility for outgoings by introducing overarching principles to indicate when landlords or tenants are responsible for charges such as water rates.

Introduce clearer and fairer processes for terminating and renewing tenancies - better balancing flexibility and certainty of tenure.

Encourage landlords and tenants to comply with their obligations under the Act by increasing the value of existing fines and exemplary damages and introducing new sanctions.

Improve the enforceability of Tribunal orders.

There are a number of notable additions to the bill, including:

the means for decisive action to be taken to deal with assaults, or threats of assault, by tenants' guests or associates, and ensuring the Tenancy Tribunal does not become an uneven, expensive and time consuming forum through the introduction of professional advocates.

It also clarifies the status of a tenancy when the sole tenant dies, requires the Tenancy Tribunal to terminate a tenancy where a tenant has permitted someone else to assault, or threaten to assault, specified people - including the tenant's landlord.

As Housing Minister I had to be satisfied that the bill balanced the rights and obligations of both tenants and landlords.

The Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill is currently being considered by Parliament's Social Services Committee.

To inform its consideration of the Bill, the Committee has invited submissions from members of the public.

The last day for lodging a submission is the 3^rd of July. If you haven't already done so, and would like to have your say on the Bill, I would encourage you to participate in the select committee process.

The Government is also updating housing legislation in other areas. The Unit Titles Bill currently before Parliament will modernise the way apartment blocks are built and managed. 

The Unit Titles Bill

This Bill will make setting up unit title developments easier and more flexible as well as streamline and simplify the way multi-unit developments are managed.

The original 1972 Act was designed for simple, small-scale residential flats prevalent at the time and is not adequate for today's large-scale, complex developments.

The way many of us live today is very different to how we lived 30 years ago.

It is estimated there are approximately 16,500 unit title developments which make up about 96,000 units.

It is expected that increasing numbers of people who live in more densely populated towns and cities will choose to live in apartments.

For example, it is estimated that within 50 years, half a million people in the Auckland region will be living in apartments, townhouses and high-rise buildings.

It is important therefore, that legislation in this area meets the needs of people today and in the years to come.

The Bill:

Allows mixed-used development to be better managed. A block with retail units at street level and apartments above could be managed by separate bodies corporate but be a member of a head body corporate with over-all responsibility for the building.

Amends the decision-making process. The agreement of three-quarters of title holders' will now be needed for a decision to be made, amending the previous unanimity threshold.  This will prevent holdouts and prevent unit owners who do not vote holding up the process.

Stipulates that the body corporate will own the common property which means it is responsible for the management and upkeep of all common areas.

Requires bodies corporate to develop long-term maintenance plans to protect the value of the property over the long term.

Allow disputes to be dealt with through mediation or adjudication in the Tenancy Tribunal in the first instance, rather than solely through the courts, making resolution faster and cheaper.

Allow purchasers the opportunity to view body corporate rules, audited accounts and maintenance accounts.

These are some of the legislative changes underway but action is being taken in other areas too.

The Unit Titles Bill is also currently before Parliament's Social Services Committee. 

The Committee is due to report to Parliament on its deliberations by 5 September 2009.

Warm-up New Zealand: Heat Smart

Budget 2009 had good news for landlords and tenants.

$323 million will be spent over four years to retrofit 180,000 homes with insulation and clean-heating devices - and half a million New Zealanders will benefit as a result.

The scheme provides government grants of a third of the cost of insulation, up to $1300 and a $500 grant for clean heaters no matter what your income.

Funding is tagged to a property and not a person, so this means that landlords can get any or all of their rental properties insulated under the scheme.

Landlords with low-income tenants can qualify for a grant of 60% of the cost of insulation.

Benefits of energy efficiency in rental properties

Landlords who make their houses more energy efficient make them more attractive to long-term tenants.

As a landlord you can benefit from reduced maintenance and tenant turnover costs.

Recent research by EECA has shown that 88% of tenants are likely to stay longer in more energy efficient properties 83% of tenants are more likely to choose to rent an energy efficient home.

Tenants  benefit from a more comfortable, warmer, drier, and healthier home.

A more energy efficient house can reduce tenant's energy usage for heating and hot water, therefore saving on household power bills.

You can reduce New Zealand's environmental footprint via a reduced demand on fossil fuels. 

If low-income homes are well insulated and heated, this benefits both the householder and the public sector. It's calculated that reduced health costs and energy savings are worth twice the cost of retrofitting the house.

Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart starts on July 1 and will be run by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA).

Closing remarks

As I say, I want to see the private rental housing market prosper and the measures taken by this government that I've outlined above will help generate that prosperity.

This coupled with the range of other measures the government is taking to free the economy of unnecessary red-tape will lead to a better environment in which to do business.

Thank you for inviting me.