Rents for apartments in Auckland's CBD have recovered from their lockdown lows

Residential rents in Auckland's central business district (CBD) appear to be holding the gains made earlier this year.

The residential property market in Auckland's CBD market is mainly smaller apartments which are popular with overseas students, and are mostly owned by investors.

However rents in the CBD took a tumble as overseas student numbers declined during the Covid lockdown period (see second graph below) and vacancy rates increased.

Data from bonds collected by Tenancy Services show average rents for newly tenanted one bedroom apartments in the CBD ranged from $420 to $450 a week immediately prior to the lockdown in March 2020, while average rents for two bedroom apartments ranged from $540 to $593 over the same period.

However as the number of overseas students coming to New Zealand dried up during lockdown and many already here returned to their home countries, average rents for one bedroom apartments dropped to as low as $365 a week, with two bedroom units bottoming out at $470 a week.

According to the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, the number of people in NZ on student visas dropped from 84,000 in February 2020, just before the first Covid lockdown, to a low point of 31,000 at the end of last year.

However their numbers have been growing quickly again this year, pushing up rents in the process. 

At the end of September 55,000 overseas students were in NZ and the average CBD rents in Auckland had climbed to $460 a week for one bedroom apartments and $593 for two bedroom units. They appear to be holding steady around those levels.

That's back to where they were pre-Covid.

The comment stream on this story is now closed.

• You can have articles like this delivered directly to your inbox via our free Property Newsletter. We send it out 3-5 times a week with all of our property-related news, including auction results, interest rate movements and market commentary and analysis. To start receiving them, register here (it's free) and when approved you can select any of our free email newsletters.