8. Question No. 8—HousingNICOLA WILLIS (Deputy Leader—National) to the Minister of HousingQuestion No. 8—Housing8. NICOLA WILLIS (Deputy Leader—National) to the Minister of Housing: Did a Cabinet minute of 12 March 2021 note that policy proposals brought to Cabinet risk leading to increased rents which could have negative impacts on child wellbeing and child poverty" and how much in dollar terms have national median weekly rents increased since the Government's housing package was announced in March 2021?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Housing): The member's question is a cautionary tale in only reading the summary document—or in this case the Cabinet minute. A read of the full Cabinet paper and its companion papers would clearly show the member the policy was refined following officials' advice to address the risk the member outlines. The Cabinet paper from which the minute is drawn explains that introducing the new-build exemption would mitigate the impacts on housing supply and rents. The new-build exemption would encourage investment in new builds to increase supply.Nicola Willis: How much?SPEAKER: Order!Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Increasing supply is the best way to address affordability. The final Cabinet paper also noted that the proposals could risk leading to increased rents. It also noted that the magnitude of any potential impact was uncertain and we have no evidence to show the recent rent increases are driven by the housing policy proposals announced last year. I'd also like to draw the member's attention to the other paper at the time which made up the March housing package which was aptly titled "Increasing housing supply and improving affordability for first home buyers and renters". The paper established our $3.8 billion Housing Acceleration Fund—SPEAKER: Order! Order! The member will resume her seat. I'm now going to ask the member to get on to addressing the second clause of the question.Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: OK. So to answer the second part of the question from March 2021 to December 2021 national median weekly rent has increased by $40 according to bond data from Tenancy Services. However I would note that the national median price does not account for the changes in types and sizes of properties being rented at different times. And as I mentioned in the House last week the national median alone does not account for regional variation—for example in Auckland where we have seen additional supply the increase was limited to $20.Nicola Willis: Does she agree with the Salvation Army who say in their State of the Nation Report out today that soaring house prices and rental costs are putting a significant strain on families with a ballooning State house waiting list suggesting many are struggling?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: I agree with everything that is in the Salvation Army report. We as a Government acknowledge that we have a housing crisis and it's why while we have been in Government t we've turned around selling off and reducing the number of public houses that we have in this country to building more public houses than any Government has in a generation. I'm still waiting to hear what the Opposition's plans are in order to increase public housing—or will they sell them off like they did last time?Nicola Willis: Will the Minister in light of that support my build-to-rent housing bill provided to her in October which would boost supply of high-quality rental housing; or do we have to wait—SPEAKER: Order! Keep going but the Leader of the Opposition needs to know that he cannot do his support while his deputy leader of the National Party is asking a question.Nicola Willis: Mr Speaker may I start again?SPEAKER: No you can pick up from where you were.Nicola Willis: Or how much longer do we need to wait for action on build to rent?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: I believe this is in the realm of a hypothetical question because I understand the member hasn't actually lodged the bill in the members' ballot. But no from what I've seen in the media about what the member has talked about her bill no we won't be supporting her on it because we have been undertaking a programme of work since March of last year which will address the issues unlike the bill the member has been talking about.Nicola Willis: Does the Minister consider that the Government's changes to the tax treatment of rental properties have contributed to the biggest ever annual increase in median rents and if she doesn't share that view what is driving soaring rental costs?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: There are a range of factors that are driving rental increases and we can see this across a number of countries. If we look at countries that are also experiencing increases in inflation associated with COVID—such as the UK such as Canada—their economists are also pointing to rent along with fuel being one of the drivers. It is a phenomena that we are seeing around the world. In terms of whether or not I sheet this back to the changes that we made back in our March package: no I don't because we are a Government that has put in place mitigations namely exempting the interest deductibility from the rentals and also the brightline exemption for those as well.Nicola Willis: Was Cabinet advised that tax changes for landlords were "likely to result in increases in rent or the sale of properties by landlords leading to displacement of renters" and can she tell the House how many additional families have been forced on to the State house waiting list since her housing package was announced?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: In answer to the first part of the question what Cabinet was advised in both the paper that the member has referred to in the minute and its companion paper that went the following week to Cabinet the one that was entitled "Increasing housing supply and improving affordability for first home buyers and renters"—that Cabinet paper advised Cabinet that it was likely to positively impact those groups who are currently renting and/or unable to buy a home. This was of course the $3.8 billion Housing Acceleration Fund that we set up for infrastructure funding in order to increase supply. I point that member to the evidence. Where we are seeing increases in supply we are seeing much more constrained increase in rental prices.Nicola Willis: How many additional houses have been built resulting from the fund she announced in March last year?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: The member will need to put that question in writing but I can point the member to the fact that if I take the announcement of eastern Porirua alone the announcement that we've made of around $156 million off the top of my head is going to result in an additional 2000 houses. It shows the naivety of that member if she thinks that will have resulted in houses by now and why she is part of a party that has never come up with a solution to the housing crisis."