Landlords sell ahead of Residential Tenancies Act changes

Reports are coming in from around the country of landlords selling up their properties ahead of tougher tenancy regulations. The government is considering changes to the Residential Tenancies Act - including limiting rent rises to once a year and setting the amount of notice a landlord needs to give to terminate a tenancy to 90 days. If any changes are approved, changes are are likely to come into force in 2020 and would affect almost 600,000 renting households. But it's not a case of one-size-fits-all, as reporter Katie Scotcher found when she talked to property managers. Jon Harris from Harper Properties - which has about 700 properties on its books in Auckland and Hamilton - says the business has lost up to 40 properties in the last year. In Christchurch the head of Priority Property Management Chris Uren says there hasn't been a lot of selling of rental properties. Joseph Lupi runs Full House property management in Wellington and he says, in the last six months, the company has increased the number of properties on its books.