Landlords to attack freeze

Press, 27 June 1983, Page 9

Landlords to attack freeze

Within two weeks the New Zealand Property Investors’ Federation, which was formed in Christchurch at the week-end, will start lobbying the Government for an easing of the rent freeze. The federation was formed at the first national conference of landlords and property investors. The South Island vicepresident of the federation, Mr Alan Roberts, who is president of the Christchurch Landlords’ Association, said the new group had been formed to givei property investors a national

voice with the Government. Already four associations, including the Christchurch Landlords’ Association, had joined the federation and three more were expected to join. Mr Roberts said that the overwhelming feeling of the conference, which was attended by 85 people, was that it was “fed up” with Government controls and regulations. These included not only recent moves such as the rent freeze and last year’s Income Tax Amendment Act but regulations “crept in" since 1973, Such

as the Rent Appeal Act, 1973, and the Tenancy' Amendment Act, 1975. The first issue the new federation would tackle was the rent freeze, which was “extremely unfair,” Mr Roberts said. “The federation will go straight to the Government with submissions for sensible exemptions in the rent freeze regulations, instead of the ballyhoo they have just brought out, which is no use at all,” he said. He expected the representations to be made “within a couple of weeks.” Further submissions

would be made on clauses in the Income Tax Amendment Act, which introduced a “back-door capital gains tax,” Mr Roberts said. “It is quite evident that if something is not done soon the rental accommodation situation will just dry up,” he said. “Some landlords are already talking about finding ways to get out of rental accommodation and going into other forms of investment such as commercial property.” Change was needed because the rental accommodation situation was. “desperate.”