Election 2026: Where the parties stand on housing policy

HouGarden New Zealand, 19 October — Housing remains one of the top five issues for New Zealand voters, with one in five respondents to the latest Ipsos poll naming it a top concern for the country, even after unemployment pushed it out of the top four. Ten parties have published housing commitments ahead of the election. What follows is a plain account of each, based on policy documents verified as of 16 October.

LABOUR proposes a capital gains tax (CGT) of 28 per cent on profits from the sale of commercial and residential property, excluding the family home. Critically, only gains accrued after July 2027 would be taxed; any increase in value built up before that date would fall outside the scope of the tax entirely. Labour also proposes removing upfront costs for solar installations through government-backed finance, kickstart subsidies, plug-in options for renters and a community battery fund. The party says it would retain interest deductibility for landlords, add 6,000 social housing places over four years, and raise the Crown guarantee for Community Housing Funding Agency (CHFA) Social Bonds.

For Chinese New Zealand residents with investment properties, Labour's CGT proposal is directly relevant: a sale after July 2027 would trigger a 28 per cent tax on whatever portion of the profit arose from that date forward, while gains built up before that cut-off would not be taxed. The family home remains exempt regardless.

NATIONAL proposes widening access to 5 per cent deposit home loans by raising the First Home Loan income cap to $300,000. That figure applies to total combined household income across all applicants, not to each individual borrower separately. The party also proposes abolishing the blanket ban on minimum car parking requirements, working with Auckland Council through what it calls the Auckland Deal to align housing, infrastructure and economic growth, and introducing a Home Energy Fund — a central and local government-backed financing platform offering long-term loans for solar panels, batteries, insulation and other energy measures. National also proposes enabling electrification under a new planning system.

The income cap increase is significant for first-home buyers purchasing as a couple or family unit: households currently shut out of the First Home Loan scheme because their combined earnings exceed the existing threshold could become eligible under the proposed $300,000 limit.

THE GREEN PARTY proposes rent controls that would cap rent increases at the lower of inflation or average wage growth in any given period, and would require all rental tenancies to be offered as long-term or permanent agreements. Other Green commitments include a rental warrant of fitness system, a register for landlords and property managers, and stronger Healthy Homes Standards. The party proposes building tens of thousands of new public homes, significantly increasing accessible public housing stock, and funding more papakāinga on Māori land. It also proposes establishing a statutory right to housing requiring the state to ensure all New Zealanders are adequately housed, and setting up a co-governance model at the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and at Kāinga Ora, New Zealand's public housing agency. The Greens say they would also investigate capping the number of properties an individual, private company or family estate may own, and would look at introducing a value uplift levy.

NEW ZEALAND FIRST proposes prioritising citizens for social housing allocations, developing a 30-year population plan to coordinate immigration, housing and infrastructure, and requiring fast-track housing developers to show that the infrastructure their projects need either already exists, is funded, or can be delivered. The party also proposes making the Minister for Housing responsible for housing project referral decisions.

ACT proposes abolishing loss ring-fencing for rental properties, which would allow landlords to offset rental losses against other income for tax purposes. The party also proposes allowing households to export surplus power to the grid where network capacity permits, letting households sell power to providers other than those they buy from — including through local businesses and community energy schemes — and excluding purely spiritual and religious effects from resource consent assessments.

THE OPPORTUNITY PARTY (TOP) proposes an annual land value tax of 1.75 per cent, levied each year on the value of land rather than on a transaction. This is distinct from a tax triggered by a sale. Exemptions may apply to farmers and retirees. TOP also proposes implementing ten nationally consistent planning zones, creating a national pre-approval system for prefabricated and modular construction methods, updating housing laws to support a wider mix of home types, expanding the Warmer Kiwi Homes programme to cover eligible rentals and to include double glazing, solar and electrification, refunding GST to councils on new builds meeting strong environmental standards, raising the minimum Healthy Homes Standards, requiring all new builds to be wired for EV charging and solar, giving councils, community housing providers, iwi and trusted developers direct access to low-cost government finance for affordable or social housing, and allowing landowners to defer the land value tax for up to two years while their land is under active development.

TE PĀTI MĀORI proposes building 2,000 homes on ancestral Māori land within four years and allocating 50 per cent of all new social housing to Māori. The party proposes a Stamp Duty of 5 per cent on residential property sales, with a specific exemption for first-home buyers purchasing a home priced below $1 million — both conditions must be met for the exemption to apply. It separately proposes a Land Banking Tax of 33 per cent on land held without development. These are three distinct instruments: the stamp duty is a transaction tax paid on sale; the land banking tax targets idle land; and TOP's 1.75 per cent annual levy, noted above, is based on the ongoing value of land. Te Pāti Māori also proposes ending all sales of freehold land to offshore foreign interests, introducing a Vacant House Tax of 2 per cent per year applied to the capital value of any home left vacant for more than three months in a year, repealing interest deductibility for landlords, enacting universal rent control, repealing no-cause evictions, and increasing funding for the Sustaining Tenancies service, which supports tenants at risk of losing their homes.

For Chinese New Zealand residents or offshore investors, Te Pāti Māori's proposed ban on freehold land sales to foreign interests and the 5 per cent stamp duty — combined with the vacant house tax — are the proposals most likely to affect purchasing decisions directly if enacted.

All policies listed above are election campaign commitments as of 16 October 2026. None has been passed by Parliament or come into force.