Twenty rental properties in Northland are to be part of national trial for "warrants of fitness" to guard against substandard properties.
The scheme for rental properties has been welcomed by Northland Real Estate Property manager Duncan Findlay, who says housing WOFs will hold Northland landlords to account.
State houses will have to be leak-free, well-ventilated and contain an electric light in each room to get a warrant of fitness under a trial which will determine whether the scheme is extended to all rental properties. But critics argue housing upgrades in the private sector would end up costing the people they were designed to help.
Housing Minister Nick Smith launched the trial last month, which will evaluate 500 state houses, and itemised the minimum standards they would have to reach. Northland has more than 2180 state homes - 20 of which will be part of the trial.
Mr Findlay said WOFs would make landlords more accountable if extended to all rental properties.
"It'll bring quite a good regulated standard to the industry. Anybody who has a major fix-up only really has themselves to blame to let it get into such a state," he said.
But to an extent, the rental market was already self-regulatory, he said.
According to Trade Me property figures from January, the average asking rent in Northland in the three months to December was $293 a week.
Dr Smith said the trial would show whether housing WOFs were practical and cost-effective. Each home would have to pass a 49-point checklist every three years.
They would have to be insulated and dry, safe and secure, and contain essential amenities such as bathroom and kitchen facilities.
In six months, Housing NZ would report how many homes were up to standard and the cost of upgrading deficient properties. Housing NZ property services general manager Marcus Bosch said houses already underwent "significant" maintenance.
"We expect the majority of our properties to pass the WoF," he said.
Opposition parties said the trial was a "stunt" because the real problem was in the private rental sector where thousands of children lived in cold, damp homes.
Property Investors Federation president Andrew King said tenants would bear the cost if the WoF scheme was rolled out to private rentals. Landlords would front the initial upgrade costs, but would recoup the money through rent increases.
"The cost will be somewhere between $10 to $15 a week, which doesn't sound like much to a lot of people but, for some tenants, that's a huge amount. The actual problem that the warrant is trying to overcome is people living in cold, damp housing ... [but] a lot of tenants simply can't afford to turn the heating on. Insulation is useless if you can't turn the heating on."
Putting money into insulation and subsidising power costs for the most struggling households would be more effective, he said.
- Additional reporting Isaac Davison