The Greens are backing the introduction of a rent freeze after the Human Rights Commission called on the Government to take urgent action to address housing affordability for Kiwis on low incomes.
Housing Minister Megan Woods this week asked to meet with the Human Rights Commission after it demanded the Government act.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Government implemented a temporary six-month freeze on rent increases to ease the pressure on renters.
Greens co-leader Marama Davidson told AM Early on Thursday that more than a freeze was needed.
Davidson said a freeze would "stamp out the immediate crisis" but the Greens were calling for more rent controls.
"People are just really struggling and going into… deep, desperate hardship," she told host Bernadine Oliver-Kerby. "That's unacceptable and part of why that is, is we really need to start treating housing as a human right - as a core public good - and not just a way for already wealthy people to make even more wealth.
"The Human Rights Commission is echoing that and, for at least a few years now, we've been calling for further rent controls - including an immediate rent freeze while we put in place more comprehensive rent controls."
Davidson said controls could include stopping landlords from increasing rent between outgoing and incoming tenants.
"We could easily fix that," she said. "I think that people would feel it's pretty fair enough if we link rents between tenants and make some transparency, at least, to be able to know what the last person was just paying five seconds ago."
The Greens and the Human Rights Commission weren't the only organisations calling for rent controls. Advocacy group Renters United has said rent prices are out of control.
"Rent controls are an urgent measure to reduce the stress that too many New Zealanders face due to exorbitant and unjustified rent increases," the group said in a petition posted on its website.
"For the last ten years, rent prices have been increasing faster than incomes. That means rent makes up a larger portion of renters' incomes, making escaping the broken rental market harder than ever.
"We can't keep up with these unjustified rent price hikes. But we could keep them under control."
Rent controls have previously been rejected by the Government, while the Opposition National and ACT parties also don't back them.
"Instead of artificially trying to cap rents, the Government should focus on expanding the supply of rental properties," National Party Housing spokesperson Chris Bishop said. "That means landlords will have to compete for tenants through higher quality or lower rent. National would work with community providers to get more houses built."
ACT leader David Seymour said the fundamental problem for tenants was a housing shortage.
"Restricting rents will not lead to more homes being built, in fact, the opposite," he said.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said earlier this year the Government wasn't proposing rent controls, despite her then-Associate Housing Minister Poto Williams publicly floating the idea.
"We are not considering rent controls," Ardern told AM in February.
"She [Williams] was asked whether or not we were looking at things we could do to support renters and, of course, we continue to do that - that doesn't mean we're introducing rent controls."
