People living in the Western Bay of Plenty are coming are under increasing pressure to afford rent, says Coromandel MP Scott Simpson.

‘The latest data shows that the median rent for houses in the Western Bay of Plenty District was $350 in October 2017 when Labour came to office and in December 2021 the median rent is now $520. This is a staggering increase of $170 per week under Labour, which means people are paying $8840 extra per year just for housing.

‘We have a shortage of houses to rent or purchase in the Western Bay of Plenty and Labour’s failure to fix the housing crisis is making the situation worse.

‘Whether it was increasing the brightline test or removing interest deductibility, Labour have stumbled from one knee-jerk policy to another. At each step they were warned that landlords would have no option but to pass on the costs to their tenants. Labour arrogantly went ahead anyway and now New Zealand renters are paying the price.

‘Many Kiwis are already struggling to keep up with increasing costs at the supermarket and the petrol station, let alone the skyrocketing rents.

‘The Western Bay of Plenty is a region with huge growth potential and increasingly people are seeing it as a great place to live. National has sensible solutions to the housing crisis, such as reducing compliance costs that drive up the price of new housing and fixing the Consumer Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act which has cut access to bank lending. We are determined that New Zealand can once again be a place where hardworking, aspirational, everyday people can see a path to home ownership.’