NZ Election Quiz 2026
A free NZ voting quiz for the 2026 general election
New Zealand should tax the profit people make when they sell an investment property.
This is called a capital gains tax. Right now, most profit from selling a rental or investment property isn't taxed. Every proposal on the table excludes the family home.
Read more, what this means and who it affectsoptional
What this actually means
At the moment, if you buy a rental for $600,000 and sell it for $800,000, that $200,000 gain is usually not taxed at all, while someone earning $200,000 from wages pays tax on every dollar. A capital gains tax would tax the profit when the property is sold, not while you hold it. Every proposal on the table exempts the home you live in.
How it works in the economy
Two arguments run in opposite directions. One says taxing wages but not property profit pushes money into housing instead of into businesses that create jobs, so taxing the gain moves investment toward the productive economy. The other says any new tax on investment reduces the total pool of money being invested, and that landlords pass costs on. Both effects are real; economists disagree about which is bigger.
The argument, both ways
Supporters say
- Someone making $200,000 selling a property should pay tax on it, just as someone earning $200,000 in wages does. Rent is already taxed as income; the profit on sale mostly isn't.
- New Zealand is one of very few developed countries without one, and it's why so much money goes into houses rather than businesses.
- It raises revenue from a small group without touching most people's income.
Opponents say
- It's a tax on investment, and investment is what builds new houses and businesses in the first place.
- It's complicated and expensive to administer, and creates incentives to just never sell.
- Landlords will pass the cost to tenants as higher rent.
How this might affect you
If you own a rental or a bach
You'd pay tax on the profit when you sell. Labour's version is 28% of the gain, only on gains made after the start date, not on what the property has already made.
If you own only the home you live in
No direct effect. Every proposal exempts the family home. Around two-thirds of NZ households are in this position.
If you rent
Depends who's right. Supporters expect house prices to cool slightly. Opponents expect landlords to pass the cost on as rent. There's no settled evidence either way for New Zealand.
If you run a small business or farm
Labour's version excludes farms, businesses, shares and KiwiSaver. The Greens' broader version would capture more.
The numbers
Home ownership is at its lowest rate since 1951, about 65% of households, down from a 74% peak in the 1990s. Both sides cite this: supporters read it as investors crowding out first-home buyers, opponents as evidence the binding constraint is how few houses get built, which a tax does not change.
Stats NZ: Home ownership rate
Arguments above are what each side argues, not our assessment of who is right. Figures are official statistics and link to their source. To see what each party has actually committed to on this question, open where every party stands.
How much does this issue matter to you?
Tip: press 1–5 to answer, S to skip, arrow keys to move around.
Sharing this computer?
Wondering how this is scored? Read the method
About this NZ election quiz
This is a free voting quiz for the New Zealand general election on Saturday 7 November 2026. It asks where you stand on 30 statements drawn from the policies the parties are actually campaigning on, then compares your answers with what each of the 6 parties in Parliament has published. You get a percentage match with every party and a reading of where you sit on the political spectrum.
The questions are spread evenly across economy & tax, housing, health & education, climate & energy, law & order, and tiriti & immigration, five questions each, so no single topic decides your result.
Questions about the quiz
- How does this NZ election quiz work?
- You answer 30 statements on a five-point scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree, and mark how much each issue matters to you. Your answers are compared with each party's published position on the same statement, and the closer you are across all 30, the higher your match.
- Do I need to sign up to take the voting quiz?
- No. There is no account, no email and no sign-up. Your answers are scored in your browser, and nothing identifying you is ever collected.
- How accurate is the result?
- For a consistent set of answers it is reliable: in testing against each party's actual platform with up to a third of answers randomised, the tool still returned the correct party 97.7% of the time. If your views genuinely straddle several parties, the percentages will sit close together, and that closeness is the real signal.
- Can I skip questions I do not understand?
- Yes. Every question can be skipped, and skipped questions count for nothing rather than being treated as neutral. Each question also has an optional explainer covering what the policy means, the arguments on both sides, and who it affects.
- What happens to my answers?
- Scoring happens entirely in your browser. Answers are kept on your device so you can come back to an unfinished quiz, and they are encoded into your results link if you choose to share it. At the end of the quiz a sharing box shown before your results, ticked by default, adds your answers anonymously to a dataset that helps us check the quiz is working; untick it and nothing is stored. Either way, nothing that could identify you is ever collected.
Want to see the underlying positions first? Every party's policies are published in full, each with a source and the date it was last checked, and the scoring method is set out in detail.