The decline in advertised rents that has been evident on websites such as Trade Me Property and Realestate.co.nz for the last few months is now starting to show up in the bonds received by Tenancy Services.
In May the national median rent from the 12,321 bonds received by Tenancy Services dropped to $595 a week.
That was was only down by $5 a week compared to $600 in April, but was significant because the national median rent had been sitting on $600 a week since February 2024 - the only exception being January this year when it briefly popped up to $620 before coming back to $600 in February.
On its own, a monthly movement of $5 a week in either direction would not necessarily signal a major change in the rental market, but this latest movement, while still small, comes after property websites Realestate.co.nz and Trade Me Property have both been reporting declines in asking rents for advertised rental properties.
It follows that lower asking rents should eventually flow through to lower rents in bond data, so the small fall in May's average rent may be the start of a more significant decline after almost 18 months of rents stagnating - the table below shows the monthly and annual change in median rents around the regions.
While median rents were slightly weaker in May, the number of bonds received in May was reasonably strong.
Tenancy Services received 12,321 bonds from throughout the country in May, most of which would have been for newly tenanted properties.
That was up 4.9% compared to May last year and was also the highest number of bonds received in the month of May since 2021.
That, and the number of properties being advertised for rent on the main rental websites, all point towards there being plenty of rental stock available for prospective tenants to choose from, which should also help keep a lid on rent increases.
Whether that turns out to be a sinking lid we'll have to wait and see.
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