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Number of properties available to rent up 24% compared to a year ago, with the average asking rent down $20 a week

Property / news
Number of properties available to rent up 24% compared to a year ago, with the average asking rent down $20 a week
For Rent sign

The rental housing market moved further in renters' favour in September, with the number of available rental properties  increasing while asking rents declined.

Property website Realestate.co.nz received 6401 new rental listings in September, up 18% compared to September last year.

That pushed the total number of properties advertised for rent on Realestate.co.nz to 8224, up 23.6%.

In some districts, the increase in supply is huge, with the biggest increases occurring on the West Coast up 133%, Hawke's Bay 109%, Wellington Region up 106%, and Wairarapa up 100%.

"Across the motu, rental stock is in plentiful supply," Realestate.co.nz said in its September rental report.

While the number of properties available to rent is going up, the asking rents are coming down.

The average advertised asking rent on Realestate.co.nz was $624 a week in September, down by $20 a week (-3.1%) compared to September last year.

Realestate.co.nz spokesperson Vanessa Williams said it was a "market of choice" for renters at present.

"There's a lot of choice for renters at present, which makes it a great time for anyone looking to upgrade their rental home or explore a new neighbourhood," Williams said.

"We've seen rental property owners and investors hold on to their properties and keep them in the rental pool for longer, driving stock levels up and bringing prices [rents] down," she said.

"This has given tenants greater negotiating power," she added.


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22 Comments

Oh sweet lordy. Add in higher insurance, council and water rates and its negative cashflow coming to a specu box near you...

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But I heard here on interest.co over many years that when your costs went up you just increased rents.

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Speculords getting cornholed in all directions.

We all weep......

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Always good to see the cost of living coming down. 

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Yes all should rejoice in cheaper rent and much cheaper housing to buy for families..

Long may the slide continue!!!!

 

The lower rates are not the specu impulse of the past.  The Ponzi is shattered and broken!!!

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Not necessarily. If it is achieved by businesses (or in this case property investors) no longer being profitable, what does the long term future look like? 

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Lower prices as investors bail........ no one holds onto a losing investment forever...If they all come to their senses at once could see a step down in rental housing ask price as people all try and be first out?

I suspect its been a trickle could become a torrent

 

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In that case no one would be building houses, it barely stacks up at current prices. 

Hard to know if homelessness is worse when houses aren't being built or when houses are overpriced. 

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There was a lot of homelessness created by the mad house price explosion.

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Why did the government choose motels instead of rentals? Sounds more like a lack of housing to me...

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Much better 

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Renters out in the street, businesses closed, GDP negative - all positive things in interest.co.nz forums...

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The hope would be that lower rents, flow into lower house prices, flow into lower land prices. Or the other way round if the Government and Councils keep working to open up supply. If land prices fall alongside finished house prices, there's still potential for a profit there for developers. 

There's no guarantee that a business will remain profitable when a competitor comes along with a lower cost base or a better offering. 

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That's the key, opening up land supply so landbankers can be by-passed.

That hasn't happened yet, so there is still plenty to be trimmed from house prices.

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Always good to see the cost of living coming down

Everyone loves a bargain. But before you crack open the cheap sparkling wine, you have to remember that when you have been creating credit for 30 yrs primarily for the Ponzi, the cost of land has to go up. This affects everything from prodn, to supply chain, to the shelf prices at the duopoly. 

We're not Japan. If you think that soon we'll be enjoying all-you-can-eat dessert, BBQ, and sushi buffets for under $20 and ski resort tickets for $60, you're misguided. Even when Japan went in to their deflationary spiral, they were a powerhouse in industrial production and manufacturing. Almost anything that Aotearoa can do except large quantities of milk powder. Unlike Aotearoa, they hadn't pissed it all up against a wall and still had the productive engine they had built from scratch. And they had the cultural cohesion do become even more efficient. 

Essentially Aotearoa needs high prices. For everything. If we don't have that, wealth will crumble dramatically. Or you'll see more middle-class getting drunk and angry at the BBQs feeling that they have been robbed.  

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At what point does this become a problem, and what is the solution? If property investment isn't profitable, what happens? 

Obviously house prices could decrease until property investment is profitable. But that means building houses becomes unprofitable. 

There really is no easy solution to housing costs. 

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What housing crisis , its affordability now not demand outstripping supply,

ie why rents cheaper = less renters....       

falling prices is the answer to affordibility.....

Crisis solved until demand for housing improves.   thats pure supply demand.

 

 

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"Crisis solved until demand for housing improves" - and then what?

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Then the cycle repeats itself, you see developers enter the market , developer friendly sites go up in value.

ACC preposition land around transport hubs for high intensificaton and away we go, more apartments probably 

Given increasing costs rates insurance water etc, it may well be that investors cannot make numbers work so the  stock is mainly built for owner occupiers.

 

Getting this prediction right and pre positioning will make some money

 I do not see prices dropping enough to make investors want to enter.

 

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So basically the cycle starts all over again. House prices go to the moon, we can't build fast enough as we have no tradies left, every man and his dog is talking about investing in property, people living in motels, etc. 

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falling prices is the answer to affordibility

How about Aussis's 'Sub-Prime Minister' Albo and the 5% deposits as an answer to affordability? Someone shared this with me:

The "5% deposit” is a political myth. Here’s the truth for a first home buyer in South Australia buying an established home for $900,000: $900,000 purchase price + $43,330 stamp duty + $198 mortgage registration + $9,012 transfer fees + $1,200 conveyancing + $600 bank fees + $2,660 rates, water & other adjustments = $957,000 total cost

Even if you meet the First Home Guarantee criteria (no LMI, 95% loan): $855,000 loan amount $102,000 deposit required from savings That’s 11.3%, not 5%. When politicians say, “you can buy a home with just 5% deposit”, what they really mean is “you’ll still need over 11%, plus taxpayers are guaranteeing your debt.” This is not a housing fix. It’s another inflationary demand-side illusion dressed up as a solution.

 

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Great news for renters !

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