By Susan Edmunds of RNZ
New Zealand’s recent building boom has changed the make-up of some suburbs around the country.
Census data shows the number of households who do not own their own homes has dropped in the past decade.
Some suburbs have experienced even more dramatic changes.
Auckland’s Penrose, for example, was 56.7% renters in 2013 and 52.5% in 2018, but had dropped to 27.8% by 2023. It has a relatively small number of homes, but the number more than doubled from 201 in 2013 to 453 in 2023.
Ruakura in Hamilton had a similarly large increase in owners. In 2013, it was 50% renting households, but that dropped to 27.6% by 2023. It went from 84 homes in 2013 to 729 in 2023.
Wharewaka in Taupō also featured, with the renting population dropped over 10 years from 32% to 12.2%, as the number of homes increased from 309 to 639.
Hobsonville, Auckland, had a renting population drop from 43.8% in 2013 to 24.8%, as the number of homes ballooned from 576 to 4956.
Simplicity chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub said new developments had changed the character of suburbs around the city.
“All the people living in those places tend to be owner-occupiers,” he said. “We’re building more homes and more people are getting into home ownership – I think that’s a good thing.
“[Places like Penrose] have gentrified ... the wealthy suburbs are pushing further and further out.
“Māngere Bridge, people used to look down on it. Now, it’s a perfectly desirable suburb, great location right next to the water.”
He said the opposite seemed to be happening in places like Queenstown, where the renting population was growing. Stonefields in Auckland, Lake Hayes Queenstown, and Goodwood Heights and Sunnynook in Auckland had strong increases in the renting population.
Stonefields went from 12.5% to 28.9% renters.
Cotality chief economist Kelvin Davidson said loan-to-value rules, which had an exemption that meant people buying new properties did not have to meet the same deposit requirements, had pushed buyers to new builds.
“Those sorts of properties have been in demand from buyers, because – for example – they can get around the LVR rules.
“Particularly when Auckland housing affordability was really stretched, a way to buy a house in Auckland was to get a townhouse, because they’re exempt from LVRs. They’re cheaper, anyway, than standalone houses.”
He said places like Marshland in Christchurch, where renters dropped from more than 27% to 11.3%, had seen the same effect.
Davidson said people who bought the new houses may have vacated other rental properties that tenants could move into.
“All else equal, the owner-occupier rate has gone up in Penrose,” he said. “It’s potentially because people used to be renting there and then they’ve been able to buy.
“The houses don’t disappear. Possibly there’s been some people ‘pushed out’, but those people who pushed them out had to come from somewhere and that’s a house that’s freed up somewhere else.
“Kiwi society, the home ownership dream, all of that, a lot of people would probably view these stats as pretty positive in these suburbs.
“The owner-occupier rate has improved and that’s seen as desirable in New Zealand.”