KEY POINTS:
Auckland Rents are on the up, especially for quality homes.
Property managers Crockers report climbing Auckland rent returns since May, which is good news for investors battling to draw good returns from increasingly expensive housing stock.
Auckland is home to most of the country's renters, with 145,000 tenant households - almost a third of the national total of 451,500.
Three-bedroom properties in Ponsonby, Mt Eden (including Kingsland, Balmoral), Sandringham, Birkenhead and the city centre (Parnell, Grafton and Newton) saw some of August's highest annual rises in median rental prices. But upmarket suburbs like Devonport and Mission Bay/St Heliers - where three-bedroom homes command as much as $575 a week - showed only modest jumps.
Andrew White, spokesman for Ray White real estate and rental agency, predicts interest rate rises, and growing housing demand, will force rents up further.
Property investment analyst Kieran Trass senses "upward pressure", but believes investor landlords are cautious about losing tenants: "You can't ask for really high rents (right now) because the market just won't pay them".
Helen Hodgson, of Bar- foot & Thompson, reported rents as stabilising.
