The Greens are promising their new policy, Homes For All, will deliver warm, dry and affordable homes for all Kiwis.
"Our plan announced today is a bold and cohesive blueprint to ensure we're all in a warm, dry home, no matter where we live or whether we rent or own," co-leader Marama Davidson said on Sunday afternoon.
The policy aims to:
- deliver enough affordable rental homes to clear the social housing waiting list within five years
- stimulate a sustainable non-profit rental sector by offering Crown financial guarantees for community providers to build new rental properties
- remove funding and regulatory barriers to encourage community housing projects
- expand the current Progressive Home Ownership and Warmer Kiwi Homes programmes
- make renting fairer through regulating property managers, and introducing a rental Warrant of Fitness
- overhaul the building code.
Davidson said successive Governments have sold off a large percentage of social and community housing, while letting the remaining properties fall into disrepair.
"They've also allowed speculators to over-invest in property, pushing up house prices and leaving too many families struggling with the high cost of rent."
The Greens hope to create a non-profit rental sector by offering Crown financial guarantees for community housing providers, including iwi, to build new homes which can be rented out long-term. The properties would be managed as long-term rentals, giving "real security" to tenants.
The plan will build on other programmes, such as the existing Progressive Home Ownership scheme to help first-home buyers.
"Retrofitting more existing homes through the expanded Warmer Kiwi Homes programme will make them healthier for families and reduce these homes' impact on the planet," Davidson said.
"I'm really proud of the progress we've made in Government this term to address housing inequality. We've improved the lives of people who rent, introduced the Healthy Homes Standards for rentals, and with the Government's support, delivered more social housing than any Government has in decades."
The latest Newshub-Reid Research Poll shows 5.7 percent of participants support the Greens, indicating the party has a good chance of meeting the 5 percent threshold required to make it back into Parliament without winning an electorate seat.
