Limits on how much a landlord can increase rent is a policy strongly supported by nearly half of the country's youngest voters.
Online tool Vote Compass reveals 47% of people aged 18 to 29 strongly agree with rent limits being imposed, while 31% somewhat agree with the policy.
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"Younger people are bearing the brunt of inequality," said Jessica Ye, a student renter and Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association president.
"I think students are really burning out dealing with rising costs and rising rents and I think a rental control is immediate relief for them."
This compares to Vote Compass showing 40% of people aged 30-39 strongly agree with rent limits being put in place, as well as 37% of voters aged 40-49 and just under a third of people in both the 50-64 and 65+ age groups.
In 2020, landlords were limited to increasing rent for tenants once a year, an increase from the previous six month rule, except in special circumstances.
But there's no limit on how much landlords can increase rent prices by.
Tenants can apply to the Tenancy Tribunal for a rent reduction order to be considered if they have evidence what they're paying is a lot more than similar houses in the area.
Ye said some students aren't able to cover their living costs with the maximum weekly student loan of $302, so are being forced to work more hours to cover their rent.
The situation is causing some students to sacrifice their study, and in some cases, drop out as they can't afford to continue, she said.
"It's going to worsen inequality if university and tertiary education is only for wealthy people."
Ye has paid between $215 and $280 per week for flats in the capital over the past four years, excluding bills for costs like electricity.
She said in one flat the rent was increased by $20, despite the "terrible" quality of the property which included mould growing under her bed and her developing a cough.
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"I think rental controls aid that sense of control... it's just like a sense of security and stability that you don't have to have such a precarious living situation where you have to move out all the time and be ready to move out."
Ye said students are excited by the Green Party's rent policy ahead of the election, which includes a limit on how much a landlord can increase rent by, a rental warrant of fitness and a detailed register of landlords and property managers.
Both National and ACT have announced policies to restore mortgage interest being tax-deductible for landlords.
National has also announced it will restore the ability for landlords to evict tenants with 90 days notice without giving a reason and end the automatic rollover of fixed term tenancies to ongoing (periodic) tenancies.
Labour and Te Pāti Māori haven't announced rent specific policy at this stage of the election campaign.
Renters United national organiser Eimhin O'Shea said the country has "loose rules" on rental price increases during tenancies but between tenancies "it's a free for all" which hurts people.
"Every single dollar that rent gets raised by is one less that renter has for food, for transport, for energy, clothing... every single one of life's other essentials."
O'Shea said while building more housing is the overall solution, that will take a long time.
"For now, we actually really need a Government to stand up and take some really courageous action on rental price increases."
Vote Compass is a tool that helps voters understand how their views align with political parties' policies.
You can choose to agree or disagree with 30 statements about issues like health, education, the environment, and tax. Vote Compass will then analyse your answers with the policies of different parties and show you how similar they are to your own views.
Developed by a team of social and statistical scientists from Vox Pop Labs, Vote Compass is a civic engagement application offered in New Zealand exclusively by 1News/TVNZ. The findings are based on 90,770 respondents who participated in Vote Compass from September 10, 2023 to September 18, 2023.
Unlike online opinion polls, respondents to Vote Compass are not pre-selected. Similar to opinion polls, however, the data are a non-random sample from the population and have been weighted in order to approximate a representative sample. The Vote Compass sample data have been weighted by gender, age, education, income, region, Māori ancestry, and partisanship to ensure the overall composition reflects that of the actual population of New Zealand according to census data and other population estimates.
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