6. Question No. 6—HousingJOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland) to the Minister of HousingQuestion No. 6—Housing6. JOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland) to the Minister of Housing: What recent announcements has he made on steps to improve the rental market?Hon CHRIS BISHOP (Minister of Housing): Today I've announced changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to encourage landlords back into the rental property market. We are reintroducing 90-day no-cause terminations for periodic tenancies returning landlords' notice periods for ending a tenancy to 42 days in certain circumstances and we are reintroducing landlords' ability to give notice to end a fixed-term tenancy at the end of a term without giving a reason. We know that waging a war on landlords just ends in pain for tenants—part of the reason why rents have gone up by $170 a week in the last few years. We want to bring balance back to the rental market and bring landlords back into the market.Joseph Mooney: How will reinstating 90-day no-cause terminations improve conditions for renters?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: Well over the last few years we have heard from many landlords that without the backstop of 90-day no-cause terminations they're just unwilling to take a chance on tenants who might have otherwise missed out on the rental market—people leaving prison for example; people with criminal records; or people at the edges of the rental property market. Giving landlords the backstop of being able to end a tenancy will mean more of them giving people a fair go with the reassurance that if things don't work out they can end the tenancy.Joseph Mooney: What will these changes mean for Queenstown?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: Well very positive changes for Queenstown. One of the effects of the 2020 changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to basically make the ending of a fixed-term tenancy almost automatically roll over to a periodic tenancy was the complete reduction in the number of landlords being willing to offer short-term rentals in a market like Queenstown. Instead landlords decided it was all too hard and instead those properties ended on Airbnb actually which has contributed to people sleeping in tents down by the foreshore in Queenstown and other cases of hardship. I'm also advised that there are other holiday hotspots where this happens including Waiheke Island and places like Dunedin with the student rental property—Chlöe Swarbrick: Come to Waiheke Bish—I'll show you.Hon CHRIS BISHOP: Yeah well I just mentioned Waiheke; it's exactly the point I'm making. So we are going to change that law back to what it was which will mean that fixed-term tenancies mean fixed term.Tamatha Paul: Thank you Mr Speaker. Can he guarantee that whānau won't be kicked out of rental homes and the neighbourhoods that they're connected to as a result of the policies that he has announced today?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: Well no Minister can guarantee anything in Parliament as that member knows but what I would say is landlords don't kick out good tenants. [Interruption]SPEAKER: We're just waiting.Joseph Mooney: What else is the Government doing to fix the housing crisis?Hon CHRIS BISHOP: Well the Government has a five-point plan to fix the housing crisis. We need improvements to the rental market to make it easier to be a landlord and to be a tenant but most fundamentally we need to smash the urban limits that are holding our cities back fix infrastructure settings and introduce incentives for cities and regions to go for growth. My colleague Minister Chris Penk is working on building and construction changes. We are going to deliver better social housing and most importantly we are going to fundamentally reform the Resource Management Act 1991. Where the last Government failed we will succeed.