Officials believe a third of all rental homes won't be insulated in time for the deadline next week. However preliminary results from a NZ Property Investors’ Federation (NZPIF) survey show that the real number of properties which are unlikely to meet the deadline is likely to be a lot lower.
To make their estimate, officials have used a survey from the beginning of 2018. At that time they claimed that one third of rental homes were still to meet the standards.
“It is extremely unlikely that none of the rental property providers surveyed 18 months ago have not insulated their rental property since then” says NZPIF Executive Officer, Andrew King.
Officials appear to have used older surveys and the level of uptake by rental property providers of the Government’s insulation grant scheme. However, a NZPIF membership survey from three years ago showed that even with the grant, members found that it was cheaper to buy the insulation themselves and either DIY install it or hire an independent installer.
“Officials would not be able to track rental property providers who have not used the Government grant scheme, and this could be the reason they are over estimating the number that are yet to be insulated” says King.
The NZPIF has surveyed over 650 rental property providers covering a combined 4,216 rental properties. Of these properties, just 173 (3.2%) would not meet the July 1 deadline.
Regarding non NZPIF members, only a slightly higher number of rental properties – 4.2% - would not make the deadline. For both groups, this is considerably less than the 33% estimate and shows that the vast majority of rental properties do have insulation to the required standard.
ENDS
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