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Is there any economic rational for Labor utter rejection of Rental Caps, or is it just untenable politically?

What about rental caps for rental companies with over three properties, not the Mom & Pops with only one or two properties to rent, would that be more tenable?

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Their are landlords out there who own many properties, but only one property per company. How would you catch them?

I'm not pro rent caps; I'm pro taxing all profits (no capital gains loopholes) when the income is earned.

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How about letting the Inland Revenue Department handle the rent control framework?

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How about the government fund IRD to actually enforce the current laws? We don't need new laws when the current ones are being flouted because of minimal risk of being caught.

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I think any rent control would be govt policy, rather than revenue collection. IRD would run a mile from that one.

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My view is a simple annual tax or levy on residential-zoned land values would do the trick. For everyone. Not just landlords.

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Thanks David. I'm going to take a deeper look at this over the next couple of weeks. The libertarian economist in me (I was one once) tells me rent controls are a bad idea in the long run because there are so many ways to get around them and don't solve the ultimate problem of a lack of supply. That's still my current view and the consensus view of economists and policy makers here. The trouble is the 'pure' price signal of rents at the moment doesn't seem to be solving the supply problem either. There's lots of reasons for that, some of which are market structure and infrastructure funding related. My current view is they could be useful for a year or so while a huge number of houses are built, but that's not the current plan. I don't think it would fly politically. A lot of these median voters are now amateur landlords and the optics of going back to the future 'Muldoonist' Polish Shipyard policies is not good. I think more substantial and long run policies are needed, which neither National or Labour want to pursue. So status quo for now.

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Bernard rent controls will just make the housing crises much worse, if landlord’s can’t raise rents they will ensure they select tenants who will do the least damage to their housing investments, so if you have children, pets, are young and assessed as likely to party, then rental supply will be very limited for you.

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