Tackling Rental Affordability in Communities

Rental housing is the true frontline of the chronic housing crisis in this country. Rental affordability is one of the most critical factors determining the level of hardship experienced by people on lower incomes. This country has seen a worsening of rental affordability in recent years, at the same time as the proportion of the population that is renting has grown larger. Lower income households are most affected, as they are much more likely to be renting. Ending homelessness and housing transience is made more and more difficult when renting is becoming less affordable.

This paper focuses on lower-income renters in the private rental sector, those who face the worst affordability and fewest options. Key measures of affordability are examined and the concept of identifying a fair rent at community level is explored as a counterpoint to the current dominance of the market rent in rental policy.

Affordable housing for everyone is first and foremost a moral issue. Every person has a right to decent housing, and in a wealthy country such as Aotearoa New Zealand there is no shortage of resources to fulfil this right. But the policy settings to achieve this are inadequate. This needs to change, and focusing on fair rent as a guide for policy begins to chart the route from crisis to stable housing for all. Identifying a fair rent based on actual median household incomes and house prices in communities provides an alternative source of information in the rental sector. This would help to complement other necessary policy action such as better designed housing-related income support payments and significantly growing the stock of community and government-owned social housing