A Wellington mega-landlord says he’s seen a “dramatic shift” in the housing market post-election.

Matt Ryan, who owns more than 100 properties in the Wellington region, told Newstalk ZB he’s already seeing more properties selling at auction.

“I went to an auction a couple of weeks ago and they sold nine of ten properties under the hammer, and then Harcourts had another gala auction - they had a clearance rate of 65 per cent for the 30 properties under the hammer.”

He credited this to the new National/Act Government who have pledged to bring back interest tax deductibility on properties.

Ryan said the pendulum had swung too far in favour of tenants. Photo / Ross Setford

“That’s a game changer. It was always an unconscionable law in my opinion. No other sector in New Zealand has been targeted where they couldn’t write off the cost of running their business and owning property and renting it is a business.”

However, the Council of Trade Unions said restoring interest deductibility will lead to a blowout of more than a billion dollars over the next four years - with no benefit to renters.

An analysis by Council of Trade Unions economist Craig Renney, formerly an adviser to Labour finance spokesman Grant Robertson, suggests the policy will cost an extra $900 million and come in closer to $3b.

Council of Trade Unions (CTU) economist Craig Renney. Photo / Mark Mitchell

In the current tax year, from April 1, 2023, landlords can claim a 50 per cent deduction, but National and Act have promised to increase this to 60 per cent.

“That means that they [landlords] will be receiving a rebate on payments already made. Landlords will be cut a cheque from Government, but tenants will not benefit from the rental payments they have already made. That’s hugely unfair and simply rewards landlords for nothing,” Renney said.

Ryan told Newstalk ZB the previous laws under a Labour Government swung too far in the weight of tenants.

“If you’re a sensible, logical thinker the pendulum swung too far in weight of tenants.

“Some of the laws out there were incredibly stupid - one of the stupidest ones in my opinion a landlord couldn’t give notice to a tenant to remove them from the property.”

The previous law meant landlords could give the notice to remove a tenant after three written notices of separate anti-social acts within a 90-day period before they could apply to the Tenancy Tribunal to remove a tenant - but National has promised to scrap this and bring back no-cause evictions.

Ryan said Labour have “a hell of a lot to answer for”.

“We had a rockstar economy in 2017 and now it’s a mess - Luxon and his coalition have their work cut out.”

Vita Molyneux is a Wellington-based journalist who covers breaking news and stories from the capital. She has been a journalist since 2018 and joined the Herald in 2021.