Who has $30 billion to fix New Zealand's poor housing stock?

In the 1997 classic Good Will Hunting Robin Williams comforts Matt Damon.

"It's not your fault. It's not your fault".

I feel like saying this to most responsible landlords. But, to be blunt, it doesn't matter whose fault it is. It is our problem.

Most landlords are good people wanting to do the right thing. It is not their fault that the state of our housing stock leaves landlords in a difficult position of renting out properties that are unhealthy to live in.

Even when energy was subsidised in the 1960s, we couldn't afford to keep our houses warm.

There are bad landlords and property managers, just as there are bad tenants. The main problem here is the vast majority of good tenants and respectable landlords who are left with substandard housing. Housing that gets rotten and mouldy because it is too expensive to heat or there is no heat source.

Whilst it is the case that consumer law makes it clear that you shouldn't sell goods and services that make clients ill, what do you do when the majority of housing is substandard? The New Zealand frame of reference is poor housing, so scrubbing mould off walls, and sleeping in unheated bedrooms is not unusual. In many cases, landlords don't live in homes that are significantly better than those of their tenants. If even multi-million properties don't have heating, there's clearly a huge gap in knowledge of what constitutes good housing.

The 2015 BRANZ housing condition survey showed that rental properties were worse for mould and damp issues (56 percent). Still, owner-occupied properties were not much better (44 percent had visible mould). Mould only grows in conditions that are bad for human health. You can clean the mould off, but the poor living conditions for humans remains.

How many homes are affected? Nobody knows for sure. We know the seismic capability of every building in New Zealand but not if they are fit for human habitation.

How do we fix this? I'm not going to sugar coat it: Fixing our housing is going to cost a lot of money. The Beacon Pathway, a research project on how homes can be warmer, drier, healthier, 10 years ago showed that full house insulation with thermal glazing is the only sure solution. The other measures they tried (like the measures mandated in the healthy housing legislation) did not sufficiently improve the living conditions inside these buildings.

So now you’re going to ask ‘How much James? How much?’

My finger suck estimate is $40,000 per property x 700,000 properties. Yeah, that's a lot. Some spare change from $30bn (or about 5 years of health spending from the impact of living in sub-standard accommodation).

It is unrealistic to expect that landlords or owner-occupiers can afford the $40,000 to $50,000 the Beacon Pathway measures required to ensure decent housing. So what can we do?

The Warmer Kiwi Homes offering from Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) could be expanded to offer a broader range of eligibility and home improvement offerings. These measures could include whole of house insulation, airtightness testing and up-graded windows. The financing for the improvements could be through grants or a low-interest repayment through property rates.

The added benefit to this programme would be the economic stimulus of the retrofit works.

Enabling households to save money on their energy bills means they will have more disposable income at a difficult time for many. Energy efficiency is "shovel ready”, with labour-intensive projects rooted in local supply chains. The social housing sector offers an excellent opportunity for an initial investment.

Similar schemes are being proposed in Australia, theUnited Kingdom, European Union and in the United States. We should follow their lead.

I love living in New Zealand, I like the people, the footie and the scenery. However, there does appear to be a blind spot with housing and acceptance of substandard living conditions as 'that's just the way it is'. It doesn't have to be this way and bold decision making to improve our housing would have a massive benefit to everyone.