KiwiSaver bond payment policy could drive up rental costs - Greens

A National Party policy announcement which would see young people able to take money from their KiwiSaver to pay a rental bond has been met with criticism from many, including the Green Party.

The party's spokesperson for renters, Chlöe Swarbrick, told Morning Report she agreed with financial journalist Frances Cook in that it would make people financially worse off.

"I genuinely for the life of me, cannot understand how anyone can look at the housing crisis and conclude that a key issue is tenants needing to raid their retirement savings because landlords have set rent and bonds too high."

Swarbrick said the policy had the potential to drive up the cost of rent prices again.

When probed on why it was such an issue if the money would soon go back into the tenant's KiwiSaver as it was just a bond, Swarbrick said hundreds of Kiwis had highlighted the difficulties they had come across with getting their bond money back.

She said some were still waiting for a few hundreds dollars to be returned five years on.

"I think that the one-and-a-half million renters in this country should be incredibly frustrated from the two … major parties in this country refusing to do anything meaningful about the structural unfairness and inequality that is perpetuated throughout our rental housing market.

"And I guess when you are unwilling to do anything, when you take any meaningful change off the table, this … technocratic house of cards is really all that you have left."

National's housing spokesperson Chris Bishop denied the policy undermined KiwiSaver and said the party did want Kiwis involved in the scheme.

"Is this going to win us the election? Absolutely not. Will this provide a bit of choice for young people and students who need a bit of a leg up in the rental market at a very tough time of their life? Uh, yes it will. We think it makes sense and we're going to go forward from there."

Bishop said it would not require staff to be hired and the back-end would be done through MBIE's tenancy services which runs the rental bond database.

KiwiSaver providers would also have an obligation to release the funds, he said.

Bishop told Morning Report the party did not have any "real idea" of how many people would take it up.

"It will be over to people," he said.

The party's deputy, Nicola Willis, spoke to First Up about the policy announcement, hoping it may encourage young people to join KiwiSaver in the first place.

"The idea is that many young people struggle to get the money together for a bond, you know, four weeks rent, that's a lot of cash, especially with the way rents are now, and this is an option that 'hey look, if you put your money in KiwiSaver, actually you can use some of that on a temporary basis to pay for your bond. By the time you're 30, you're going to have to be putting that money back in your KiwiSaver cause we do want you saving for the long-term, but here's a choice and option that's available to you'."

If young people did not want to take it up, they would not, Willis said.

"It's about providing a choice. In the long-term, the best thing we can do is have more people join KiwiSaver, choose to make their savings and that's something National wants to see."