Answer extracted from the The Otago Opportunity podcast — listen to the full episode below.
How Do Landlords Exploit the Student Rental Market in Dunedin?
Landlords exploit students because healthy home standards are virtually unenforceable with huge backlogs, knowing students will accept poor housing conditions out of necessity. The tenancy tribunal is a costly and lengthy process with limited resources, making it impractical for students to challenge substandard conditions or unfair practices. Recent government reintroduction of no-cause evictions further tilts power toward landlords, who can wait out the year knowing another student tenant will arrive.
The Enforcement Gap: Standards Without Power
Healthy home standards exist on paper, but enforcement is nearly nonexistent. Massive backlogs mean complaints accumulate without resolution, leaving students trapped in damp, cold, or unsafe properties with no recourse. Landlords understand this reality; they recognize that enforcement is too slow and too weak to pose a genuine threat.
This enforcement gap creates a market where as Flynn Nesbit explains in the podcast episode, students are forced to choose between homelessness and substandard housing. Landlords exploit this power imbalance deliberately, knowing students have limited options and little time to pursue complaints through dysfunctional systems.
The Tribunal Barrier: Justice Too Expensive and Too Slow
Even when students try to take action, the tenancy tribunal process is prohibitively costly and lengthy, with limited resources to hear cases quickly. A student facing a dispute with a landlord faces months of waiting, legal fees, and lost study time—barriers that few student renters can afford to overcome.
Landlords know this. They understand that the tribunal system is so resource-constrained that most students will simply give up rather than pursue a formal complaint. This calculus—that a lengthy legal process will deter most tenants—is built into their decision to ignore standards or impose unfair terms.
No-Cause Evictions: Landlord Power Unbound
The recent government reintroduction of no-cause evictions has fundamentally shifted power. Landlords can now evict students at will without stating a reason, giving them the ability to wait out the year knowing the student will eventually leave and be replaced by another desperate renter. This removes the last check on landlord behavior: the risk of losing a tenant for cause.
For a detailed look at how OUSA is advocating on these issues and what broader policy changes might help, listen to the full conversation on Listenly, where Flynn Nesbit discusses the political strategy behind student housing advocacy.
"I think support policies and things that will benefit you now, not in a greedy and selfish way, but when all of us are doing well, all of us are doing well."
Flynn Nesbit — Political Portfolio Executive Member, Otago University Students Association (OUSA). A second-year law student at the University of Otago originally from Mount Maunganui, Nesbit was the first first-year student elected to the OUSA executive in 30 years. His advocacy work on housing, fees, and education policy is rooted in his family's union background, including his grandmother who is a lawyer and active member of the TEU.
Key takeaways
- Healthy home standards lack enforcement power; backlogs leave students with no practical protection against substandard housing.
- Tenancy tribunal processes are too costly and slow for most student renters to use, effectively removing legal recourse.
- No-cause evictions empower landlords to evict students without reason, exploiting the knowledge that another tenant will arrive.
- Students accept poor conditions because landlords know housing scarcity leaves them few alternatives.
See also
What is the ACT Party's proposed policy on student service fees and why do student associations oppose it?
ACT proposed making student service fees opt-in on a service-by-service basis, allowing students to choose which services to fund individually rather than supporting all services through a mandatory bundle.
What percentage of student service fees do different New Zealand universities allocate to their student associations?
Otago receives 20% of the student service fee, Auckland receives 5%, AUT gets 2.5%, and Lincoln gets approximately 30%. This variation means student associations have vastly different resources depending on their institution.
Why did voluntary student membership become a problem for student associations in New Zealand?
In 2012, an act of parliament changed automatic enrolment in student unions to an opt-in system. This caused student associations to lose funding because fewer students chose to join voluntarily.