Christopher Luxon is unsure whether he will lower the rents on his own investment properties if National's housing policy is enacted despite saying the plans would put a "downward pressure on rents" if the party is elected.
Under National's policy, the party wants to restore interest deductibility for rental properties, reduce the bright line test, and make "sensible changes" to tenancy laws.
The changes include reinstating landlords' ability for no-cause terminations and ending the automatic rollover of fixed-term tenancies to periodic rentals.
Meanwhile, the bright line test — which currently sees an effective capital gains tax paid if a house is sold within a decade — would be reduced to two years under National's plan.
National has argued unwinding the Labour Government's "misguided… raft of regulations" would "put a downward pressure on rents".
But when asked, party leader Christopher Luxon was less sure about if he was going to lower the rents on his own investment properties.
Luxon, who owns four investment properties in Auckland, told Q+A that: "It's not about me, Jack. I don't know. I haven't thought that through and I'm not thinking that through."
He said earlier: "We're going to put downward pressure on rents by actually unwinding the bright line test from ten to two years, unwinding interest deductibility, and changing some of the tenancy laws."
The party leader continued: "The official advice from the Treasury and from the IRD to this Government was: 'Do not do this.' Why? Because it's adding cost to landlords, that will lead to higher rents and less properties that are available."
When pressed, Luxon also said National hadn't carried out any "specific modelling" for how its housing plan would affect house prices.
National has pointed to a soaring public housing waitlist and rising rents under Labour and promises to "restore a properly functioning private rental market" if elected.
Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt has released the findings of a two-year-inquiry into the country's housing crisis.
National's social housing plans
Luxon said housing had been an "abject failure" under the Labour — which had been elected under Jacinda Ardern in 2017 with the promise to "fix the housing crisis".
"What we're saying in social housing is look, we think we can make much better use of community housing providers. They are very nimble, they're very quick. They also have very good wraparound and pastoral care support. How do we get them more capital and funding to do more building?" he said.
The combination of the reduction in the brightline test, reintroduction of landlord tax breaks and a potential influx of foreign buyers.
"The second piece is how to make sure we get people out of motels and out of cars. They've often been there for three months or 12 weeks, and we need to actually make them priority one and get them to the top of the waitlist.
"The third is we've got to do a review of Kāinga Ora because there's a number of things going horribly wrong there.
"We want them to be able to evict unruly tenants that are causing major problems.
"We want them to be able to go through their procurement and asset management exercises when the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development System says there are some challenges there
"We need to make sure that they are functioning in a much better way."
The National leader says he is upfront and transparent about his investments in the housing market. He also answered questions on his other election-year policies.
When pressed on where evicted anti-social tenants would be moved, the National leader said it would be "up for Kāinga Ora" to figure it out as it was currently "just not fair".
"That will be up for KO (Kāinga Ora) to move those tenants out of those properties and find accommodation for them," he said.
"I'm going to be prioritising those that want a state house, that deserve a state house that can't get one, over those that are disrespecting a state house."
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