Gareth Morgan: "The reality is we are heading to a world where 60 per cent of the population are life-time tenants - so we have to be protect the majority of people."

Gareth Morgan's Opportunities Party (TOP) wants to make it illegal to kick out a tenant for any reason other than lack of payment or damage to property.

Morgan's policy would move New Zealand to a German-style rental system where tenancies are much more secure and long-term.

He would also introduce rental warrants of fitness and donate the government social housing stock to non-profit social housing providers.

The key piece of the policy package is greatly strengthened tenancy rights through a radical rethink of the Residential Tenancies Act.

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"The reality is we are heading to a world where 60 per cent of the population are life-time tenants - so we have to be protect the majority of people," Morgan said.

"It's dealing with the reality that house price to income ratios are at 8-12, as opposed to 3 when I bought a house in the 70s."

Lease terms would essentially be abolished, with the assumption that all tenancies are long-term.

Selling a rental property would not be a reason to get rid of tenants - any new buyer would need to take them on.

Landlords would only be able to kick out a tenant for not paying rent or damaging the property. Even then, the length of notice that landlords must give to tenants would be based off how long the tenant had lived in the property.

Rent increases would also be restricted so tenants could not be priced out intentionally.

New leases would have market rent set by landlords and accepted by tenants, essentially as they operate now. This data from new leases would be used to find average rent increases in an area, which could then be applied to existing tenancies in that area, with the burden spread over three years.

Tenants would be able to leave by giving 90 days notice.

"What we are trying to do is turn these rental houses into homes. The biggest problems we have here is the huge instability caused by kicking low-income families pillar to post as they change rentals, and have to change their kids' schools," Morgan said.

People who wanted to move into a rental they owned would be allowed to do this once, but find it quite hard to do it a second time.

"[The policy] will alter the profile of New Zealand home ownership so the modest and low-incomed no longer need to climb the mountain of home ownership in order to create a stable long-term home for themselves and their families," Morgan said.

A second plank of the policy is the donation of government-owned social housing to non-profit community housing providers.

Morgan said this would give the housing providers enough equity to invest in more social housing to keep up with demand, something he believes the Government is currently failing to do.

Morgan noted that housing costs were much more in line with incomes in Germany.

"Having huge rent and house price inflation is not a necessary accompaniment to a successful economy."

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