Rising values drive up rents

A shortage of rental properties in Whangarei may be helping to push fees up.

Tenants are facing rising rental costs as property values in the North climb steadily.

The North's property values are not that far behind Auckland - 12 per cent compared to the North's 10 per cent, according to Peter Thompson of Barfoot and Thompson. He said this has resulted in rents rising by 5.5 per cent on average over the last 12 months for a three-bedroom house (to $324) across Northland but only 2 per cent (to $314) in Whangarei.

The biggest rental rise across the district was in Kerikeri - up 17 per cent to an average $363.

Khalin Cook, Barfoot and Thompson Whangarei property manager said she did not believe it was just increasing property values that triggered the rise.

"There's also the rising costs of rates, insurances and other costs incurred to a home owner [which] have an impact on the rental prices as well."

She did not believe landlords were "ramping up" rents.

"This would imply that they [landlords] were increasing rents excessively and in most instances I don't believe this is the case. Rent increases are usually modest as landlords, whilst mindful of increased costs, like to retain quality tenants," she said.

Ms Cook said she had not seen an increase in people defaulting on their rent.

"I can't say that I have experienced this personally. I think it is important as a property manager to help support people into properties that are within their budget."

One spin-off of rising rents could be renters considering buying their own property.

"The Kiwi dream is to own your own piece of paradise ... The increased rents in some cases I would imagine have been the unexpected motivation for a lot of people to really focus on what they need to do buy their own homes."

But the increase in rents might not end soon, with a shortage on the market of rental properties, Ms Cook said.

"Based loosely on the availability of rental properties now verses say, 12 months ago, I believe there is a shortage of rental properties. Also you only need to look into social media sites and you can see that there are many people searching for rentals and have been for an extended period of time in most cases, which indicates a shortage as well."

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