One Two Three Home

We know that poor housing conditions result in ill health for many New Zealanders, and we know which interventions are required to ensure good quality housing that supports health. Healthy Housing Initiatives intervene to improve the homes of kids who are hospitalised for illnesses that could be related to poor housing conditions. Some colleagues and…More

Last year, some colleagues and I carried out research in Taranaki. People had their homes inspected against a ‘warrant of fitness’. After they received the results of the assessment, we called them up to see whether they would make changes that would make their homes safer, warmer or dryer. We found there were some changes…More

There’s a major problem with maintenance in New Zealand rental housing. Independent assessors of a representative sample of New Zealand housing found that 32% of rental housing was poorly maintained (Buckett et al. 2017:26). Research recently published by Auckland Council, and based on interviews with Auckland property managers, showed that a major challenge in working…More

Republished with permission from the Labour History Project Bulletin. Life isn’t good for many people who rent their home: renters move often; problems of cold and damp housing are widespread; low income households are often crowded; and many people spend more than half their income on rent.[1] Poor quality housing, crowding, and a lack of…More

Last month, an article based on part of my PhD research was published in Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online.[1] For this project, I interviewed tenant advocates: volunteers and professionals who, among other things, advise tenants on their rights, help them negotiate with their landlords, and help them represent their interests at the Tenancy Tribunal.…More

The Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill no.2 amends the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA). Introduced by the Labour Party back in 2015, it is currently being considered by the Government Administration Select Committee. Over the next couple of months, this Bill is likely to be in the news again as the select committee hears oral submissions. This Bill is…More

Brett Christophers is professor at the Department of Social and Economic Geography and the Institute for Housing and Urban Research at Uppsala University, Sweden. His most recent book, The Great Leveler: Capitalism and Competition in the Court of Law (Harvard University Press, 2016), provides a theoretical and historical examination of the relationship between competition and monopoly in…More

Noting the poor conditions in New Zealand’s rental sector, the New Zealand Herald columnist Deborah Hill Cone recently asked: Why are renters not rising up? Why is there not a more vocal and activist tenants’ lobby group? Actually, renters are rising up. There are tenants groups pushing for change. For example, Wellington Renters United have put out a…More

There are a number of things that come up when people discuss how to improve the experience of renting in New Zealand. We usually talk about what changes we can make to our residential tenancies laws and norms, to provide for longer, more secure tenancies, better quality housing, and housing which is more affordable. Such…More

Dr Lisa Mckenzie is a research fellow in Sociology at the London School of Economics. In February, I interviewed Lisa about her new book, Getting By: Estates, Class and Culture in Austerity Britain (Policy Press, 2015). The book is based on her ethnographic research into life in St Ann’s, a council housing estate of 15,000…More