Daisy Pedersen's TikTok videos about the Auckland rental market have been captivating Kiwis. Photo / Alex Burton
Daisy Pedersen's TikTok videos about the Auckland rental market have been captivating Kiwis. Photo / Alex Burton
Some families are waiting a year or longer to find rentals as demand soars in Auckland, yet the tight market is also helping one woman bloom into a TikTok star.
Daisy Pedersen recently took to TikTok to document her journey finding a rental as she and her husband went to 12 viewings and were knocked back four times before eventually finding a home.
More than one million people watched her most popular video.
It joked how her husband would only accept a rental if its driveway is low enough for his beloved Subaru - or "Subi" – to clear the gutter without nasty scrapes and scratches.
Other more light-hearted videos touch on what it's like to have a prospective tenant accidentally drop their meth pipe or a creepy older tenant hit on you.
Yet it's Pedersen's posts about difficulties facing families and Pacific and Māori renters that are resonating most deeply.
As a renter and property manager, Pedersen said she is hearing from families in her community who've been trying for more than a year to find rentals and who feel they are being racially discriminated against.
Pedersen said even she had felt the need to go to viewings with her white husband.
"I was very conscious of being a brown person," she said.
"I wanted to increase my chances of getting a rental, so I never went to a viewing without him."
Pedersen believes her videos are proving popular because they reflect the mounting pressure on families in the "super competitive" Auckland rental market.
Daisy Pedersen outside the home she was recently successful in renting in Otara. She shared her journey to find a rental in a series of videos on TikTok. Photo / Alex Burton
Trade Me's most recent Rental Price Index found the national median rent had climbed $40 in 2021 to reach a new high of $560 per week in December.
That means tenants now need to fork out an extra $2000 a year in rent compared with last year.
Auckland's median rent, meanwhile, is sitting at a record high $600.
Renter frustration has particularly been growing in Wellington where a number of tales about sub-standard rentals are making headlines.
TVNZ Breakfast reporter Abbey Wakefield recently revealed one Wellington rental hopeful applied for 55 flats before securing an outside shed to sleep in.
It acts as the fifth bedroom in a four-bedroom house, where the bathroom and kitchen are inside.
"As you can imagine, it would get a little bit cold in winter," Wakefield told Breakfast.
Separately in Auckland, a ramshackle West Auckland caravan was recently on offer for $285 per week before its advertisement was pulled.
This shed is being rented for $220 a week in central Wellington. Photo / 1News
However, while there has traditionally been a shortage of all types of rentals in Auckland, property managers say the Covid pandemic has actually led to an oversupply of two-bedroom rentals, giving tenants lots of choice.
It is now typically taking 37 days to find new tenants for two-bedroom rentals, compared with just 22 days for three- or four-bedroom rentals, Mike Atkinson, managing director of Aspire Property Management, said.
"Two-bedroom properties are much harder to rent than they ever used to be - a two-bedroom unit at about $500 a week used to rent straight away," he said.
He believes the change is due to two things.
This includes closed international borders freeing up more inner-city apartments that would previously have been rented by international students and developers building too many two-bedroom apartments.
Real estate agent Tom Rawson, branch manager of Ray White Manukau, agreed.
He said there is a glut of newbuild two-bedroom rentals on the market, whereas three-bedroom homes are in short supply and getting 20-30 rental applicants each.
"That market is absolutely flooded – the demand is through the roof."
James Elliott, chief executive of property manager Kitt, pointed to two other factors potentially pushing up demand for family homes.
They include new credit rules forcing some home buyers to rent because they can't get home loans and tougher government regulations creating a supply shortage as some landlords sell their rentals.
Pedersen, meanwhile, said she and her husband, who she married in November, were successful getting a three-bedroom home in Otara last month.
This West Auckland caravan was offered for rent on listing website Trade Me before the advertisement was pulled. Picture / Supplied
They had earlier been given a 90-day notice to move out of their previous rental just before Christmas because the landlord wanted to sell.
Being a renter and working for two separate Auckland property managers, she uses her insights to make her TikTok videos.
And ironically, she said it's easier for a couple to get a three-bedroom rental than it is for a family.
This is because landlords typically want fewer people in a home because they believe the fewer people living in it, the less likely it is to be damaged, she said.
Typically, this means landlords will accept no more than four people for a three-bedroom home and no more than five for a four-bedroom home.
This had made it hard for one of Pedersen's close relatives, who is a single mum of four.
She has been on the emergency waiting list and living in a motel for one year.
Part of her trouble is that the Government's Work and Income department caps her rental assistance at the price of three-bedroom homes and yet most three-bedroom landlords won't accept her family of five.
Other Pacific and Māori families have contacted Pedersen through TikTok and Instagram to say they have good jobs but also can't find homes big enough.
Others feel they are being discriminated against as "brown people".
One Māori family told her that after being asked for their ethnicity they were suddenly not considered for a rental.
After a further year of failure finding a rental, they have come to believe they are facing ongoing discrimination.
"I think a lot of brown people carry this [idea] in the back of their minds," she said.
Daisy Pedersen's TikTok videos about the Auckland rental market have been captivating Kiwis. Photo / Alex Burton
Pedersen said her two current employers do not discriminate.
However, at a previous workplace she had dealt with racist landlords who told property managers they didn't want "brown people" in their rentals.
Yet Pedersen hopes her TikTok videos can help bring about change through comedy and honesty.
Many of her TikToks include advice for rental novices, such as Pedersen showing the rental resume she used during her own house hunt, which includes a bright wedding photo of her and her husband and information about them.
She also gives tips on how other Pacific and Māori people can get into the property management industry – an important step towards helping end discrimination, she said.
