KEY POINTS:
Landlords should consider buying property in rural regional areas around Bluff or Invercargill to get the best returns but tenants should hunt in big cities, according to the findings of a new report on property.
Declan Wyndham-Smith, director of StreetValue, said areas out of the big cities gave real estate investors the best returns. But renters get the better value in cities because they are paying relatively low rents for expensive properties.
Bluff, Invercargill, Hastings and Taranaki were some of the best areas for landlords because they had cheap houses which yielded good rents, he said.
Landlords were getting a 9.20 per cent yield on rental property from houses in Southland's Mataura, where average property prices were a low $72,035 but rents were a healthy $127.50 a week, he found.
Next best was Patea in South Taranaki (8.07 per cent) Kingswell-Clifton in Invercargill (7.99 per cent), Bluff (7.63 per cent), Kingsley-Chatham in Hastings (7.49 per cent) and Maraenui in Napier (7.40 per cent).
"I know there will be many people surprised that the regions are providing such a comparatively good rate of return for landlords," he said.
Renters were better off financially in urban areas like Auckland, Hamilton and Christchurch, he found.
Torbay was best for renters because they could live in a flash suburb relatively cheaply.
Torbay had an average property price of $1.3 million yet a relatively low weekly rent average of $420, StreetValue said.
Pukete in Hamilton was next best for renters, followed by Mt Maunganui, St Heliers, Holmwood in Christchurch and Stanley Bay on Auckland's North Shore.
He launched a website six weeks ago, drawing data from a variety of sources, including Census06, the Department of Building and Housing, Ministry of Education and territorial local authorities.
Wyndham-Smith said he was a real estate consultant who held a salesperson's certificate but he had not sold property.
"I've run major websites, put together business plans for people to set up real estate offices and recruited for real estate franchise groups," he said.
He wants interest from his research to generate advertising for his StreetValue website and said he was forming alliances with a number of real estate agencies.
BEST DEALS
For landlords
Mataura - 9.2 per cent yield
For tenants
Torbay - $420 a week in rent
