There is no doubt that the Government's removal of mortgage interest as a tax deduction is causing widespread concern among rental property owners.

Various tax experts have pointed out that the tax change is discriminatory and wrong. While it has had no effect on house prices, it has contributed to a shortage of rental properties in many areas of the country, higher rental price increases, an increase in the state house waiting list and $1m a day being spent on emergency housing for displaced tenants.

The National and Act Parties have been extremely vocal in their views against these tax laws, which are aimed at dissuading people from owning rental property, and have vowed to reverse them.

However there is no way of knowing when this may happen. It is therefore prudent for rental property owners with debt to clarify their exposure to the tax law changes and decide how best to address this exposure.

To help PIA members do this, the NZPIF has developed a calculator for establishing how the tax changes will affect you from now through to 2025 when the new rules come completely into effect.

The calculator can also help you see what effect changing interest rates, increasing your rental price or paying off debt will have on your returns over the next few years and print out the result.

To access the calculator, login to the NZPIF website as a member and select "Interest rate calculator" from the list under either the Resources or Members only Menu Headings. If you have any problems logging in as a member, please email jan.hains@nzpif.org.nz for assistance. There is also a link to the NZPIF rental price calculator (which is updated monthly and can graph out 16 years of local rents) so you can establish the market rental price for your rental.

We hope that this tool helps you to manage your rentals and to continue to provide good quality rental accommodation to your tenants.