Median rent cost for homes on the rise

Median rent prices in Rotorua are high.

Renters in the middle of the Rotorua market are paying about $10 a week more for their homes compared with last year, and an expert tips more rises may be in store next year.

Statistics released by Trade Me showed a 4 per cent increase in median rental prices across Rotorua from $280 in November 2013 to $290 in November this year.

Rentals manager for Harcourts Rotorua, Raechel Leishman, said her experience was rents had remained "static".

"Our rents have stayed the same for quite a long time. The only ones that are really increasing are the properties that are in the more desirable suburbs, but your average rental property in average Rotorua is static.

"Despite that, we have had our busiest December we have had in years. Normally at this time of the year, we would be winding down and getting ready to cruise into the end of the year because no one is looking. This year we have done as many lets in the first half of the month as we did in the whole month last month."

Ms Leishman said the company expected a quiet Christmas and first half of the new year but hoped to raise some rents in 2015.

"We would like to see the rental price increase in some areas, but at the end of the day, the market dictates the price.

"Something that you get good money for now, next year depending on what is available, you might not get the same price," she said. "It is a fickle industry and at the end of the day the market will pay what the market thinks the property is worth."

The Trade Me data showed the November rental price for a small house (1-2 bedrooms) in Rotorua was $255 - a 16 per cent increase from 2013.

The median rent price for a medium house (3-4 bedrooms) was $290 while the price for a large house (5 plus bedrooms) was $473.

Nationally, rental prices rose by 5.3 per cent last month, compared with November 2013.

The median rent price was $400 per week in November, where it has hovered for the past several months.

The data showed Auckland was the most expensive place to rent a home in November with an average asking price at $460, followed by Christchurch at $450 per week.