Auckland rents up 5.6%, NZ rents up 8.3% - immigration, students cited

Rents in Auckland are continuing to rise. Photo / Fiona Goodall

Auckland rents rose 5.6 per cent annually to hit an average $671.35 a week but, nationally, rents were up 8.3 per cent in the past year, with rising immigration and more students being cited as driving factors.

Barfoot & Thompson released its latest data based on the 17,500 Auckland properties it manages, showing how average weekly rents were up 5.6 per cent.

Data also out today from Trade Me showed the national median rent reached $650 a week, up 8.3 per cent annually. The sharpest increase was in the Manawatū/Whanganui region, which was up 10 per cent to $550.

Samantha Arnold, Barfoot & Thompson property management general manager, said the latest rise surpassed the 5.27 per cent rise in the year to December.

She also referred to tension between high demand and constrained supply and said that continued to be a major factor with Auckland rentals.

“This is not a new dynamic for Auckland, but it has been compounded by several coinciding factors including the return of long-term visitors and international students, record high net migration and the ongoing impact of 2023′s extreme weather events, which saw more people in need of housing and fewer houses available due to storm damage,” she said.

Landlords were paying higher interest rates and had rising operating costs, she said.

Rents rose fastest in the central city apartment sector, which continued its post-Covid rebound, the agency found. CBD apartment rents reached $573.74/week by March, up 8.56 per cent on 2023.

Rents rose slowest in Rodney, up 3.75 per cent. Rents on one-bedroom properties rose up 6.87 per cent while rents for three-bedroom properties rose only 5 per cent, Arnold said.

The Herald has reported how migration both in and out of New Zealand continues to run hot, with record migrant arrivals being offset by record departures by New Zealand citizens. There was an annual net migration gain of 130,900 in the year to February 2024.

The 253,200 migrant arrivals and 122,300 migrant departures in the February 2024 year were, provisionally, the highest on record for an annual period, Stats NZ said. Annual net migration provisionally peaked in the year ended November 2023, with a gain of 142,200.

Gavin Lloyd, Trade Me property sales director, said the latest national 8.3 per cent annual rent rise was not the biggest.

But it was unusual to see rents go that high in March.

“We’d normally expect to see the market cool slightly as we exit summer and start heading into the colder months,” Lloyd said.

“Renters are now having to fork out $50 a week more on average than they were in March 2023. That’s an extra $2600 a year.”

Rents on apartments, townhouses and units rose to a record national average $580 a week in March.

That was 8.4 per cent up annually.

Rents are rising faster outside of the main city centres, he said.

The Herald reported in March that New Zealand has a record number of residential rental properties.

Data from the government’s Tenancy Services, supplied via the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, shows a big upswing in the number of active rental bonds deposited.

That indicates more places are being rented.

By November 1 last year, bonds were lodged on 410,904 residential rental properties: townhouses, apartments, flats, units and stand-alone homes. That’s up 38 per cent from 2010 when 297,624 bonds were lodged.

The 2018 Census showed more than 1.4 million people live in rental housing.