Land tax exemption for rooming houses

Key information

Land may be exempt from land tax if it is used and occupied as a registered rooming house.

To be eligible, the land must be used and occupied:

• as a rooming house (within the meaning of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997) that is registered under Part 6 of the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008
• primarily for low-cost accommodation by people with low incomes.

From the 2023 land tax year, you can use our guidelines to work out whether your rooming house is considered low-cost accommodation. For the 2022 land tax year and earlier, use the guidelines in the archived LTA-003v2 Commissioner's guidelines on rooming house exemptions. 

Eligibility

Use this checklist to review whether your land is eligible for the rooming house exemption.

If you answer:

• yes to all the requirements, the land is exempt and you don’t need to do anything else.
• yes to all the requirements except number 6, the land may be exempt if exceptional circumstances beyond your control stopped you from meeting this requirement. Contact us to explain your situation so we can work out if you are eligible.
• no to any other requirement, the land is not exempt.

Requirements

1. The rooming house is currently registered with the local council according to Part 6 of the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008.
2. The rooming house contains at least one room (excluding self‑contained units or apartments) always available for 4 or more residents to occupy.
3. The rooming house is occupied by at least one resident.
4. The residents have a right to occupy a room and use common facilities.
5. 1. No resident is related to the landowner or manager/lessee of the rooming house.
   2. No resident is a director or shareholder (or related to a director or shareholder) of the company that owns the land and/or operates/leases the land.
   3. No resident is a trustee or a beneficiary of the trust that owns the land and/or operates/leases the land.
6. In the previous tax year, at least 80% of the rooming house was occupied by long-term residents (i.e. people living there for at least 3 months in total).
7. In the previous tax year, the weekly tariff was less than the maximum permitted tariff.

Apply for an exemption

You must apply via My Land Tax, providing:

• the land tax years you’re applying for
• the address of the low-cost accommodation
• a description of the physical structure and facilities – include the number of rooms and whether any parts of the property are used for something other than the rooming house
• the number and types of people the accommodation is provided for
• the maximum weekly tariffs charged for the accommodation
• the type of accommodation covered by the tariffs (i.e. full board and lodging or lodging only)
• certificate(s) of registration as a rooming house issued under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 for each of the tax years you’re applying for
• an occupancy register for the tax years you’re applying for, showing the length of stay and tariffs for each resident
• a copy of residency agreement and/or any house rules residents must follow
• details about how the accommodation is made available
• a copy of any material advertising the property
• evidence showing residents are on low incomes, such as letters from housing or welfare agencies
• a floorplan of the property, showing areas used for the rooming house and areas used for something else.

Maximum permitted tariff

The weekly accommodation tariff charged per person must be less than the maximum permitted tariff.

Single accommodation