Oldies still the goodies for rents

By ANNE GIBSON

Rental prices for three-bedroom Auckland properties have risen most quickly in Epsom, while prices for two-bedroom properties have gone up the quickest in Grey Lynn.

These are the findings of research over the past three years from Leonie Freeman's Interactive Property Management, an Auckland firm which specialises in managing residential property.

Freeman compiled information from the Real Estate Institute's monthly residential rental review statistics, which is sourced from the Tenancy Services Bond Centre.

The percentage increase in median rental prices is over a three-year period between August 31, 1999, and the same date this year.

"We are often asked where the best place is to buy residential investment property," Freeman said.

"An old rule-of-thumb which holds investors in good stead is to buy in the locations of a city where our forefathers first settled," she said.

Auckland's most expensive residential rental stock - and that which rises in price fastest - is around Epsom, the city bays between Mission Bay and St Heliers, Devonport, Grey Lynn, Westmere/Pt Chevalier and the city centre.

"What does this mean for the astute residential property investor?" Freeman asked. "Follow the guidelines established by our forefathers and pick the suburbs in close proximity to the central business district where demand is strong and growth is starting to emerge but has not yet reached its full potential."

She said the difference in the ranking of suburbs between two and three-bedroom properties could be attributed to the limited availability of three-bedroom family homes on larger sites in the inner-city suburbs where there was strong demand to be in the sought-after school zones, such as Epsom and Mt Eden.