Auckland rents keep soaring, others slip

Auckland tenants are now paying $400 per week for properties regardless of size or type.

Even the smallest unit or one-bedroom home will cost a typical Auckland renter $400 per week, with median rents rocketing up more than 8% in the past year.  

Trade Me [NZX: TME] Property head Nigel Jeffries says tenants can expect to pay $499 per week for a typical property, taking annual rent costs close to $26,000 – about $2000 more than a year ago.

This is the second highest annual increase in the past five years. The highest increase was in September 2011 when median rents went up 9% year-on-year.

“It piles more pressure onto the cost of living for tenants,” Mr Jeffries says.

“Over the past five years weekly Auckland rents have risen by 28%, adding $5500 a year to the costs of renting a typical property across the city. The first eight months of this year alone have added $2000 a year to the cost of renting – a hefty price to pay for tenants.”

To put Auckland’s median rent changes in perspective, the average asking price for a residential property for sale has soared by almost 63% over the past five years. And in the first eight months of this year, the average asking price of a typical Auckland home has increased by almost $80,000.

In contrast, median asking rents in Christchurch are dropping, down almost 5% on a year ago to $429 per week.

The Christchurch rental market was extremely hot two years ago, with median asking rents rising more than 13% year-on-year.

In March this year it peaked at a weekly rent of $495 to surpass Auckland, but Mr Jeffries says rents have eased back every month since and Christchurch tenants are now being asked to pay $3400 less a year.

“It is good news for tenants in the Garden City with median asking rent falling 5% last month to $429 per week, while Auckland sat at the other end of the see-saw,” Mr Jeffries says.

Across the rest of the country, median asking rent remained relatively stable for the fourth month in a row, up $3 to $360 per week.

Over the past five years, the median asking rent for a property outside of Auckland has increased 20% from $300 per week in August 2010 to $360 per week in August this year.

Around 11,000 rental properties are let via Trade Me Property each month.

Use MyNBR Tags to track people and companies — and receive key-word email alerts. Find out how here.