Smoke and mirrors and renting in NZ
Welcome to renting in NZ, where a Queenstown-based couple was told that landlords might be hesitant about renting to them "because of curries being cooked and the smells remaining".
OPINION: A guy who runs a meth testing business was on my radio the other morning acting like nothing had changed even though the chief science advisor had just said the nation's meth testers were blowing smoke.
Doesn't it tick you off when you've got a sweet little shell game going and reality comes careening up on to the kerb to knock your table over?
Jericho Gap was a stretch of unpaved Texas road on Route 66. In the 1930s, drivers knew it as the place where your car would get bogged in the mud after heavy rain. Only a team of horses could pull you out. It was a good time to be living in Jericho Gap if you owned a team of horses. If the heavy rain didn't show up often enough, it was said, the horse-team owners would flood the road themselves.
The meth scare turns out to be another blight on Kiwis unlucky enough to miss out on affordable housing.
The meth-testing man was undaunted. He said: "Some of the most vocal people advocate on behalf of drug users. We advocate on behalf of hardworking New Zealanders."
READ MORE:
* There's no place like it
* The road goes on forever
* The end of the world and what to do next
Well, that's your trump card right there: "hardworking New Zealanders." In Sydney, your trump card is "That's un-Australian". No one can take the other side to that. Here you take on "hardworking New Zealanders" at your risk.
Here's another trump card: "The customer is always right". It's not scientifically true, but if a business pretends the customer is right anyway and treats them accordingly, they have a better chance of making the sale. This is why I can walk into any shop in the mall and I will be treated like a king just as soon as they look up from their Instagram.
Germany treats renters as people, not suspects, writes David Slack.
None of this applies when you're shopping for a place to rent. Some people – a lot, to be blunt – hold the attitude that if you rent, you must be a bit suspect.
Never mind the many reasons this may have happened. Never mind that it's really no-one else's business. If you come looking for a house to rent, you are now coming with your hand out and you're not in the mall now, and you can stop acting like a king, pal. Let's see some references and we'll need that bond in cash thanks. Are you sure you're not a deadbeat, or a crim or a meth user, like that great guy from the meth-testing company was talking about? Let's face it, if you were a hardworking New Zealander, you'd have a house by now, wouldn't you?
You can suffer through illness, through deprivation, through crisis, through family tragedy, any of the many ways a blameless person can find themselves in need, and it will mean nothing if you come standing in line to rent a house. You will get a wary glance, and you will be fodder for a Paula Bennett soundbite.
But if you were a hardworking New Zealander in the 1970s and 80s and 90s, well, congrats!! Just look at the value of your property now! Hasn't untrammelled lending and price inflation and tax-free capital gains just fattened up your asset base like a goose? Why not buy another house or two and rent it to some New Zealanders? Maybe if they work extremely hard they'll find a way to turn $1000 a week into a $600,000 Auckland house.
I asked a builder this week why supply never seems to catch up with demand in the scaffolding market. Couldn't you just set up a business and buy a whole lot of it? It's the shortage of people, he said. The under-40s are the ones who would be doing the work and they're just not here. They look at what it'll cost them to get a house in Auckland, say "you've got to be kidding me, bro", and head off to Hamilton or Tauranga.
He said: "I used to tell them: work hard and it'll pay off." He's stopped saying it. "It's just too hard for them now."
A friend who lives in Germany reminds me whenever I write about this stuff: Rental property in Germany is a long-term investment and rental accommodation is subsidised. The property market is stable, renters are treated with respect and fairness and the whole thing just works. They must surely look at us and wonder what we've been smoking.
- Sunday Star Times
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