The team investigation, which began in late May, has visited 53 properties in the student quarter, where they found several breaches of healthy homes regulations.
National manager of the team Brett Wilson said they were continuing to make strong progress, and as of last week, 50 of the 53 cases had been closed.
"The team is committed to ensuring that all properties meet the required standards before finalising any cases.
"This has included the installation of new heat pumps and significant bathroom renovations to bring properties up to compliance by landlords, as well as rent relief for tenants."
For most properties, issues included heat pumps not working or needing cleaning, windows needing repair and gutters needing repair, cleaning or connection to stormwater drains.
Among the cases that were closed, three new heat pumps have been installed.
There were also issues with lack of ventilation or ventilation not working properly or in disrepair in bathrooms.
Some older dwellings required repairs to wooden cladding and windowsills, while one larger multi-unit property needed fire safety procedures put in place.
Yesterday, the Otago Daily Times visited the student quarter to get an idea of students’ expectations of housing in the area. Finance student Moss Peake, of Dundas St, was typical in his response.
"I mean, location was the biggest factor, so we were willing to compromise on quality for like where it was and how close it was.
"The expectations were never really that high because it was always just knowing that nothing around here is really that flash."
Otago University Students’ Association residential representative Zoe Eckhoff, who has advocated for better quality housing in the student quarter, said enforcement was expensive.
"If MBIE took every landlord to the tenancy tribunal it would be extremely costly, and likely wouldn’t result in anything rewarding. They’re better off investing in assisting the landlords directly than a costly tribunal process, in my opinion."
Outgoing OUSA president Liam White praised MBIE’s openness and willingness to work on the project over the past few months.
He said it was great news that some "poor"properties now had working heat pumps and other facilities.
"One of the big issues we found [with the worst flats] was around heat pumps that didn’t work and ovens that didn’t work."
He hoped MBIE would carry out similar inspections in Dunedin’s student quarter on a yearly basis, but understood that they were a "big organisation and housing quality is a national issue".
Mr White was waiting for the findings of MBIE’s final report.
"I would like them to come out and recommend some degree of legislative change to improve housing standards for rentals, but if nothing else, I’d be extremely surprised if the report came out and said that there was no work to be done, because we all recognise that, yes, this is an issue not only in the student area, but also for the whole country."
Mr Wilson said a full report would be released later this month.
