Who cares about the rent when there's no worries about maintenance?

It costs almost $15,000 a year for the Musto family to rent a two-bedroom home in Henderson - an amount they are willing to pay to abandon the worries of owning property.

Shirley Musto, 33, and her husband Carl, 36, pay $280 a week, but don't worry about maintenance, council rates or keeping a garden under control.

"We have capital in the bank which is earning interest, we are saving $1700 a year on rates, our insurances are less, we are not paying interest rates ... we are quite happy," Mrs Musto said.

Their landlord paid $320,000 to buy the property in March; the family started renting it in April.

They have dabbled in the property market before.

"We have owned two houses previously, the first was eight years ago and we were in that for five years, we made about $70,000 on that one.

"The second one we owned for just short of two years, that was because the market was really going up quite quickly," Mrs Musto said.

They rented the West Auckland house from the same real estate agent who sold their property.

The couple - and their 3-year-old daughter Emily - plan to buy again one day.

"We do have money in the bank to buy but we are waiting for the right house.

"We have decided this time to be a bit choosier," Mrs Musto said.

"But I actually don't mind renting, nothing is my problem. When we did own I was up at Mitre 10 every second weekend."