Revealed: The suburbs with best rental returns

Aerial view of multi-million dollar properties in Herne Bay.

Outer suburbs of Auckland offer higher returns to landlords than the more expensive central city suburbs such as Ponsonby and Mt Eden.

While the rental market in Auckland is as varied and complex as the property market itself, rental yields tend to range from 4.5 through to around 6.5 per cent.

There are rental properties where landlords are managing to get even higher yields but they tend to be exceptions to the bulk of rental properties. "The further away from the centre of the city the higher the yields tend to be," says Andrew King, executive-officer of the NZ Property Investors Federation.

Rents were generally much more stable than house prices, which was better for both tenants and landlords.

Rents had gradually been increasing since the last peak in property prices in 2007, but the increases were flatter and less dramatic than house price movements.

An Ipsos report for Crockers Property Management in July said more than half of owners surveyed felt the rents they charged were fair, while a third felt their rents were below a fair level. Half of the landlords were not planning to increase their rents in the next six months.

The survey was taken before the Auckland City Council re-valuation, which landlords say will lead to higher rates needing to be passed on in rents charged.

Statistics released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment suggest rents in some Auckland suburbs have fallen recently.

Rents charged for two-bedroom homes in Ponsonby, St Marys Bay and Herne Bay, increased by only 1 per cent during the six months to the end of July, compared with the same period in 2013. Rents for a three-bedroom property in the same suburb remained the same.

Rents for a two-bedroom property in Remuera, Grey Lynn, Westmere, Mission Bay, St Heliers, Meadowbank, Browns Bay, Torbay, Albany, East Coast Bays, and Te Atatu all increased by less than 2 per cent.

Most property owners in these areas have, however, enjoyed significant increases in the value of their properties.

In comparison, owners of rental two-bedroom rental properties in outer suburbs such as Manukau and Manurewa, Papatoetoe, Mangere, Otahuhu, Otara, Panmure, Mt Wellington, and in the north, in Orewa, increased rents by 5 and 6 per cent.