Changes announced by Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods yesterday mean landlords, including Kainga Ora and community housing providers, will have another year to get their rentals up to Healthy Homes standards.
Supply chain issues related to Covid-19 had caused delays, including for Kainga Ora, and landlords were struggling to procure heat pumps and insulation from overseas, a spokesman for Dr Woods said.
In another announcement yesterday, residential property managers will now need to become registered, trained and licensed.
The Real Estate Authority would be the regulator and the Real Estates Agents Disciplinary Tribunal would have an expanded role, covering property-manager related complaints.
As well, the Government would open public consultation on a binding standard for methamphetamine contamination, the statement said.
Dunedin landlord and Otago Property Investors Association president Kathryn Seque-Roche said it was disappointing the Government was unable to get its stock of housing up to standard.
The vast majority of private landlords had worked hard to comply and many had struggled to get upgrades finished by the deadline.
"I don’t think the Government wants to take themselves to the tenancy tribunal over non-compliance with their own properties," Mrs Seque-Roche said.
While tenants in private rentals would be largely unaffected, those in social housing would suffer as a result, which was "appalling", Mrs Seque-Roche said.
Central Campus Property Management director Stephanie Wade, of Dunedin, said she had no issue with property managers being regulated and had expected the move for a while.
While the details would be important, Dunedin property managers already worked to a high standard, Ms Wade said.
Otago University Students Association student support manager Sage Burke said the OUSA believed more regulation of the property management industry would, if done correctly, benefit tenants, landlords and property managers.
"We have seen the negative consequences of an unregulated industry for many years," Mr Burke said.
The key to success would be getting the regulations right the first time, Mr Burke said.
Advocacy group Renters United said the extension was not good enough and meant more people would be admitted to hospital with preventable illnesses in the meantime.
— additional reporting RNZ
