Local property managers will be affected by new measures the government plans to implement in the rental market.

On Tuesday (November 22) housing minister Dr Megan Woods announced a suite of changes across three areas: residential property management regulations, management of methamphetamine contamination, and Healthy Homes standards. 

She said the changes would improve the lives of renters and landlords around the country.

“Nearly 600,000 households rent in New Zealand and these measures will result in regulated oversight of residential property managers, science-based rules on meth residue testing and a reprieve for landlords in meeting a compliance deadline.” 

The most substantial change in the announcement is the new requirement for property managers to be registered, trained and licensed, and subject to a beefed-up regulatory framework for disciplinary matters.

Colleen Topping, the director of long-running Upper Clutha property management firm Home & Co, said it was a positive step.

“It is beneficial to all parties to have trained, well educated property managers who are also assessed as being “fit and proper” persons,” she told the Wānaka App. 

“It is a pity however that private landlords are not also regulated as we come across many tenants who have not been fairly or properly treated and much of this is due to a lack of knowledge of the law.”

Private landlords manage 60 percent of all rental properties in New Zealand, and their omission in the new regulation has also been criticised by groups such as Renters United.

Other organisations like the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand and the Residential Property Manager Association have said they are generally positive about property management regulations but some aspects, like five figure fines for non-compliance, have been criticised. 

As part of the announcement, Megan also said landlords, Kainga Ora, and Community Housing Providers will be given an extra year to comply with Healthy Homes standards, and she signalled that the government would consult with the public before making legally binding rules on acceptable levels of methamphetamine rules in a home. 

PHOTO: Wānaka App