Lockdown rents and food price increases drag up inflation 4.9%

Costs of healthy homes regulations and impact of mortgage interest tax changes are blamed for record rent rise, Newsroom reports, helping drive biggest unassisted inflation jump since 1980s. Existing weekly rents rose 3.2% in the year to September and, factoring in new tenancy agreements, they rose 7.8%. The Real Estate Institute’s property management boss Joanne Rae is calling for a three-month extension to the compliance timeframe. The Property Investors Federation said government regulations like healthy homes, the threat of rent freeze rules and the impact of mortgage interest tax deductibility changes, have all increased costs on landlords.