Students returning to Tauranga after the summer break are facing the toughest rental market yet as they hunt for their new homes.
Some have been forced to abandon their studies after finding that they can no longer afford to live here, with rental prices listed on Trade Me running more than 10 per cent higher than a year earlier.
And, with a large number of people chasing a small number of properties, owners and managers are choosing to lease to working people with good references they perceive to be safer tenants than students.
Many of the students are studying at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, which owns enough accommodation to house a few dozen people.
The manager of 34 of those beds, Yvonne Gupwell of Town and Country Rentals, said some students had been forced to abandon their studies because of a lack of affordable accommodation.
"There is a shortage at the moment," she said. "We've had students pull out because Studylink won't cover their accommodation."
Studylink student allowances differ depending on circumstances, but most students aged under 24 are eligible for an after-tax maximum of just over $175 a week. Student websites are advertising a small number of rooms in shared accommodation for $160 to $200 a week. These are often restricted to women only, but can include non-food expenses such as power and internet.
Mrs Gupwell said returning students were competing with many other people for accommodation, and landlords were "not keen on students".
Among other issues, students often wanted to rent for only 10 months as they completed a tertiary year.
Toi Ohomai's academic director, Amanda Torr, said some students had been pushed out of the CBD to places including Te Puke and Papamoa. Fortunately, they were able to commute to the campus on buses.
Despite the housing problem, Dr Torr said enrolment numbers were roughly on a par with last year. The institution reportedly had 2025 equivalent full-time enrollments a week ago.
Steve Warburton of Prime Rentals said he was finding that some tenants were now asking to negotiate prices, and Trade Me figures therefore did not necessarily reflect the prices that properties were rented out for.
Having said that, weekly rent prices had definitely increased.
"We assessed a four-bedroom home at The Lakes for $680 to $720," he said. "That was a luxury rent on Marine Parade not long ago."
Mr Warburton said four-bedroom homes seemed to be the best value at the moment, renting out for around $500. Three-bedroom homes were averaging $450 and two-bedroom homes $375.
He advised young people looking for rentals to dress well and prepare documents such as references and power receipts.
Trade Me's median asking price for Tauranga rentals was $340 in 2012, $385 in mid-2015 and $450 in December last year.
The Western Bay has also seen a big price hike, with prices nudging the $400 mark after rising nearly $50 in a year.
Trade Me's head of property, Nigel Jeffries, said he expected to see rental prices rise even further this month as tenancies come up for renewal and landlords reassess their finances.
"We've seen rents across the country grow pretty sharply from October and we expect to see further jumps in January," he said.
According to the Trade Me figures, the wider Bay of Plenty (10.8 per cent), Waikato (11.4 per cent) and Hawke's Bay (16.8 per cent) all experienced double-digit growth in rental prices last year.
Kiwi tenants were now paying an average of more than $23,000 a year to rent their homes.
Rent hikes
Tauranga, Dec 2015: $400
Tauranga, Dec 2016: $450
Western Bay, Dec 2015: $350
Western Bay, Dec 2016: $397.50
Rhiannon hunts for a student flat
For two years, Rhiannon McIntyre was sheltered from Tauranga's rental market by staying in Toi Ohomai's own student accommodation.
But with those beds now reserved for first-year students, the 20-year-old marine studies student from Southland has been forced to hunt among Tauranga's highly-competitive rental market for somewhere to live with her friend Josie Savage, 19.
It is tough enough that room rates are as high as $180 to $200, but it is tougher still that she is a student and subject to the usual stereotypes that entails.
"It's hard because they want fulltime working couples and they don't want people flatting," Miss McIntyre says. "But Josie and I are sad excuses for teenagers - we're not into partying."
Ideally, the friends would like to find somewhere at the Mount that is cheap and within commuting distance of the polytechnic's Windermere campus. But after nearly a month of searching, they are yet to find anything suitable.
Miss McIntyre has been living on a deer farm outside Gore, and Tauranga seems like a big city to her. She's looking forward to driving up here a week or two before her course resumes on February 27.
"I love Tauranga," she says. "It's a really pretty place, especially in summer."