Rents in these seven regions saw their highest median weekly rents of all-time last month.
This country has around 1.2 million tenants and rising rental standards, introduced by the Government to counter unhealthy homes unfit for habitation.
Rental listings nationally rose 1 per cent annually.
Trade Me Property data for all of New Zealand. Graphic / Supplied
“While this is smaller than we have seen in previous months, this now marks 10 consecutive months of supply jumps,” Lloyd said.
Trade Me Property is today showing 7573 properties available for rent in New Zealand.
Canterbury rents are $520/week which is up 8.3 per cent annually and Otago $510/week, which was static.
Lloyd said the national median weekly rent for large properties of five-plus bedrooms reached a milestone in January, up 8 per cent to $1000 for the first time.
Rents for properties of three to four bedrooms also hit a new high of $670/week up 3 per cent in 12 months.
Urban rents - as opposed to all rents nationally - were $530/week median in January.
Apartments are being rented for a median $525/week, townhouses for a median $630/week and units for $480/week.
Latest data from Barfoot & Thompson shows rental prices in Auckland. Graphic / Supplied
Barfoot & Thompson found Auckland’s average weekly rent at the end of December was $629.53. That is an increase of 0.55 per cent or $3.45/week on the previous quarter and 3.29 per cent or $20.04/week annually.
The agency released its quarterly rental data on January 26.
Kiri Barfoot, a director of the company, said: “After being at a standstill in early 2020, the average weekly rent has made incremental steps over the past couple of years to settle into a pattern of steady but measured growth.”
The agency’s clients are rental property owners or landlords and that business takes a percentage of rent as payment for management fees.
She said investors were facing rising costs.
“This is despite rapidly increasing operational costs, rising interest rates and peak inflation, indicating many property owners are balancing these pressures against considerations around tenant affordability and their desire to maintain longer-term tenancies.”
Weekly rents in most areas had increased at a rate well under the average. But a few areas in the region drove the average up.
The Pakuranga/Howick area recorded a 4.46 per cent rent rise, South Auckland a 4.91 per cent rise and Franklin/Rural Manukau a 7.59 per cent rise in the three months to December 31, 2022.
“We are accustomed to this sort of pricing cycle when traditionally lower-priced areas become more in demand, and this is likely the case in Franklin particularly, where the average weekly rent for a typical three-bedroom home is the lowest in the region,” Barfoot said.
Rent rises are shown here for Auckland over the longer term. Source / Barfoot & Thompson
The area with the least increase in average rent is the central city apartment market. Rents there rose 0.96 per cent annually, she said.
Some tenants report stress finding suitable properties after their Auckland homes were red-stickered following the January 27 floods.
They say they are unable to find a place, even though they are prepared to pay some thousands of dollars a month. One tenant said she had to leave a North Shore rental when it was damaged during the floods.
She has been unable to find a suitable larger home for her and her flatmates so had returned to live at home with her parents.
She searched for some time but said nothing was available because so many other people were in much the same situation.
