Three-bedroom Auckland rented residences are now an average $642/week. Photo / NZME
Three-bedroom Auckland rented residences are now an average $642/week. Photo / NZME
Three-bedroom Auckland rented residences are now an average $647/week with prices up faster in some areas than others, according to one of the city’s property management businesses.
Samantha Arnold, property management general manager at Shortland St-headquartered Barfoot & Thompson, which manages around 17,000 properties, released new quarterly Auckland rental data today to the end of June.
One-bedroom Auckland places are now an average $424/week, two bedrooms $543/week, three bedrooms $647/week, four bedrooms $783/week and five bedrooms-plus $954/week.
Across all residences and sizes, rents jumped an average 6.5 per cent in the fast-growing Franklin and rural Manukau areas.
That showed inflation in the year to June for all households was 7.2 per cent, for beneficiaries 6.5 per cent, for Māori 7.1 per cent and, for superannuitants, 6.8 per cent.
“Rent makes up about 30 per cent of beneficiary household expenditure. This compares with 13 per cent for the average household, and 5 per cent for highest-spending households,” Stats NZ said.
Barfoot & Thompson's rental data as at June, 2023. Image / supplied
Barfoot & Thompson’s Arnold explained the biggest rental increases were in the Franklin and rural Manukau areas and the CBD.
The Franklin/rural Manukau area had higher than typical price increases since mid-2022 and that was likely to be in a cycle of adjusting to increasing demand, she said.
“This is a broad area of more rural suburbs on either side of the Southern Motorway including Beachlands, Clevedon and Kawakaka Bay to the east and Karaka, Pukekohe and Waiuku to the west, so there will be many factors at play. On average, it’s the most affordable area to rent in Auckland, second only to central city apartments,” she said.
“It’s also a fast-growing area, with busy pockets of residential and commercial development attracting more people to live and work there.
“A larger proportion of new build properties could also be contributing to the rise and at the same time we are seeing a slight dip in the number of homes available for rent, which could be putting pressure on new tenancy pricing.”
Central city apartment rents were rising due to workers, students and tourists returning at scale following lockdowns, Arnold said.
“Previously this market had been down and stagnant for several years, with price changes hovering below 1 per cent until finally rebounding to 3.46 per cent at the end of March,” she said.
City Centre apartments now attract around $542/week compared to a pre-pandemic average of $520/week in late 2019.
The low number of rental properties available in the CBD was also a factor pushing up rents, she said.
Tenants there were paying an average of $443/week for a two-bedroom place, $543/week for a three-bedroom place, but $635/week for four bedrooms. People in some South Auckland areas are some of the poorest in the city and rents are a huge component of their outgoings.
Many can’t afford to own their own places, so are long-term tenants.
Suburbs included are rural Manukau, Pukekohe, Waiuku, Beachlands, the Awhitu Peninsula, Karaka, Ardmore, Clevedon, Whitford, Maraetai, Kawakawa Bay and Orere Point.
Rural Manukau isn’t the city of Manukau but more lifestyle blocks from the Redoubt Rd area and surrounds.
Earlier this year, 12-property Auckland landlord Peter Lewis, Property Investors Federation vice-president, said he was stunned rents were rising so slowly.
Food prices were rising fast but rent rises were much slower, which was really good for tenants, he said.
Rents would keep rising due to current inflationary times, he forecast, and landlords would be all the time trying to cope with extra costs including rates, insurance and maintenance.
Lewis owns one New Windsor property without a mortgage which he said needed 25 per cent of the last two years of rent on ownership costs “without any major maintenance”.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 23 years, has won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
