Are landlords ready for the healthy homes deadline?

Sunday, 29 June 2025

All rental properties must be compliant with the healthy homes standards from July 1.

Landlords have had six years to meet healthy homes standards, but experts say many of the country's half a million rental properties won't make the grade when the final deadline kicks in on Tuesday.

The standards, which became law in 2019, set minimum requirements for heating, insulation, ventilation, moisture, drainage and draught-stopping in rental properties.

Compliance has been phased in over the years since, but by July 1 all of New Zealand’s approximately 565,000 rental properties, public and private, must comply with them.

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters announced on Monday healthy home standards had now been signed off. (First published May 13, 2019)

And from July 1 the 120-day grace period previously allowed for landlords signing up new tenancies to ensure their rental meets the required standard will be gone, and properties must comply immediately.

But those working in the field have long warned many properties will not be up to standard by the deadline, and inspection data released over the years has added fuel to the concerns.

An example was the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development’s most recent survey of healthy homes compliance, done in January 2024. It found 17% of landlords said they fully met the standards, while 73% had done things to prepare their property.

A ministry spokesperson said a further survey is under way to assess compliance, and the results will be made available in the coming months.

“We expect that by July 1 the majority of landlords will be compliant with the standards, unless exemptions apply.”

So how have rental properties been progressing on the road to compliance? The Sunday Star Times talked to some industry experts to find out.

Property inspection company Betta Group collects data on the healthy homes inspections it conducts. It analysed 1000 randomly selected properties from around the country that were inspected between April 1 and June 24 to get a snapshot of compliance rates.

The analysis shows only 23.2% of those properties achieved an overall compliance pass rate - meaning 76.8% did not. But when the data for each of the six separate standards was analysed, the picture improved.

Betta Group inspections show pass rates for compliance with heating and insulation standards are high.

Pass rates for the heating, insulation and moisture ingress standards were 83.4%, 73.4%, and 79.0% respectively.

Drainage and ventilation pass rates were 69.4% and 66.8%, while the standard with the lowest pass rate was draught-stopping at 50.3%.

Betta Group chief executive Matt Mason says it is important to recognise the data on the overall fail rate does not show the number of standards the property had failed.

If a property received a pass on five of the standards, but failed on one standard it would show up as an overall fail, he says.

“This data also covers more properties managed by private landlords than properties under the care of property managers, and property managers have been more pro-active on complying with the standards.

“Typically, property managers have been working towards the standards for longer, and the properties they manage tend to be more compliant and of higher quality.

“Whereas we are seeing a lot more private landlords who have left doing the work till the last minute.”

Thirty-three per cent of homes are mouldy, Green Building Council data analysis shows.

But the data should provide a decent idea of how progress towards compliance is going as the deadline looms, Mason says.

“The pass rates for heating and insulation were pretty high, which proves legislation does work and that landlords are responding to the standards.”

It is good news that landlords are making the effort to get their properties to standard, he says, and he hopes they’ll keep maintaining their properties to the required standards.

Green Building Council figures generated by the council’s online HomeFit self-assessment tool also suggest compliance might be lagging. Analysis of a sample of 9000 homes reveals some big gaps in compliance.

It shows 65% of homes need roof insulation upgrades to meet the standard, while 58% need to have floor insulation upgraded.

Sixty-two per cent of homes with suspended floors need ground vapour barriers as required by the moisture ingress standard.

The ventilation standard requires extractor fans in the kitchen and bathroom, but 43% of homes need a bathroom fan while 41% need a kitchen fan.

Thirty-three per cent of homes are mouldy, and 44% of homes do not have smoke alarms as required by a 2016 tenancy law.

The council’s chief executive, Andrew Eagles, says the data is from self-assessments, which are not as robust as formal inspections, and he expects a lot of properties will not be compliant by the deadline.

The healthy homes standards are a basic building block, the Green Building Council’s Andrew Eagles says.

With every deadline under the standards about half of those in charge of rental properties got on to the work required ahead of time, but a big proportion left it to the last few months, he says.

“Assessors tell us there’s no way they can do the work people want them to do in time. People have been calling them and asking them for inspections next week, but assessors have been booked up for months.”

Despite that, the standards have been a useful exercise to improve the quality of the country’s rental homes, he says.

“They are by no means perfect, and haven’t necessarily left all rentals as healthy homes.

“But they have gone some way to improving the basic standard of homes that Kiwis rent, and the quality of life of tens of thousands of families.”

Propertyscouts does not work with landlords who won’t upgrade their rentals, the company’s director, Ryan Weir, says.

Eagles sees the standards as a basic building block, and wants New Zealand to go further, as other OECD countries are, with retrofit programmes, energy performance certificates and more support for electrification for homes.

Crucially, the standards do not cover owner-occupier homes, which make up the majority of the housing stock, he points out.

“If we seriously want to deliver a healthy, productive society more initiatives to improve rental and owner-occupied homes - such as those recommended in the Existing Homes Roadmap - should be rolled out.”

But Propertyscouts director Ryan Weir says any government should be very careful about putting further costs on landlords.

Many will have spent up to $20,000 or more getting their rental properties to comply with the standards, and lumping them with more costs could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, he says.

“Good landlords have been willing to upgrade their properties to the standards. Not only do they understand it’s the law, and it makes sense, but they know it adds value to properties and makes them more attractive to tenants.

Responsible landlords like to provide tenants with a warm, dry, healthy home, the Property Investor Federation’s Matt Ball says.

“If the standards were more onerous, and included requirements such as double-glazing for example, less compliance would follow.”

He believes the level of compliance in rental property stock in the hands of reputable property managers would be high.

Propertyscouts will not manage a property unless it is compliant with the standards, and landlords have had plenty of time to get ready - although the work is not one-and-done, it is ongoing, Weir says.

“If we are doing work to ensure a property is compliant and a landlord puts the breaks on, then we will part ways with them, but it is rare to find a landlord who won’t do the work.”

He understands MBIE’s Tenancy Compliance and Investigations team will be monitoring bond forms to see if a landlord has taken over the management of a rental from a property manager.

“That’s because it would suggest a landlord has been dumped by a property manager over compliance, and so TCIT (the Tenancy Compliance and Investigations team) will then look to audit those properties.”

Meanwhile, Property Investors Federation spokesperson Matt Ball agrees responsible landlords will ensure their rentals are compliant, and says compliance is high across his organisation’s members.

“Our members are aware and well-prepared. Just under 50% of them use a property manager, and there’s a high level of compliance across property managers’ stock.

“It’s hard to estimate to what extent the broader rental market is compliant, but my guess is that there would just be a handful of landlords who have not done any work towards meeting the standards.”

While there may have been some grumbling from landlords about the standards at times it was on the margins, he says.

“Most of our members are pleased to be able to provide a warm, dry home that meets the standards for their tenants, and we also have members working to ensure their rentals are at higher levels of comfort and energy efficiency than required.”