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Trade Me's Rental Index shows Auckland's residential rents have hardly moved over the last year, but they've shot up in Wellington and Christchurch

Property
Trade Me's Rental Index shows Auckland's residential rents have hardly moved over the last year, but they've shot up in Wellington and Christchurch
<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/">Image sourced from Shutterstock.com</a>

The median weekly rents on rented homes increased by 6% in the 12 months to October, according to a new residential rental index developed by Trade Me.

The Trade Me Property Rental Price Index measures rental trends of residential properties listed for rent on Trade Me.

Between October 2013 and October this year, the national median rent for all types of properties listed on the website increased from $375 to $399.

Trade Me Head of Property Nigel Jeffries said the increase was underpinned by scorching rent increases in Christchurch where the median rent increased by 20% from $425 to $510 a week over the last 12 months.

Rents were also up sharply in Wellington where the median increased by 9.5% to $397 a week.

But Auckland went against the trend with rents remaining relatively static over the last 12 months and the median rent increasing by just 2.2% to $460 a week.

The pressure on rents was greatest for medium sized houses with 3-4 bedrooms, with the national median for these types of properties increasing by 9.8% over the last 12 months, although it was up by 23.7% in Christchurch.

The median rent for small properties with 1-2 bedrooms had not changed over the last year.

Click here to read Trade Me's full report.

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6 Comments

And the free market is being allowed to do what it does best .

Demand will match supply in due course and  sense will be restored to these stupid rents

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I think it will be difficult to adequately assess Christchurch rents as short-term rentals have a premium built in......if you need a property for under 6 months while EQC repairs are being undertaken on your normal residence you will pay quite a bit extra.........

 

The advertised price may vary from the actual price negotiated. There seems to be a lot of "For Rent" signs hanging up around Christchurch over the last few weeks. It will be interesting to see the index results in the next period......I prefer the actual results, i.e. bonds lodged with MBIE.

 

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Yup, this!  Presently Christchurch has a much higher proportion of short term rentals than the other cities, and for these you pay a premium of 30-50%.  On our street, most of the residents have been or will be in temporary accommodation at some point.  For the short jobs it's often a hotel or motel, but anything longer will be a short term rental, which will hit these statistics..

 

Things will settle down as the work completes.  I figure this time next year will be a very interesting time to be watching.

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Sounds like the work won't be completed for a while yet. Builders are telling me they are fixing original "repairs" - shoddy and/or incomplete work.

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Much of the shoddy work in repairs is being auctioned off weekly!!!  

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Auckland.  Static rent in a free market say to me that demand for housing is static.   But purchase prices are soaring.  Conclusion is that the soaring prices are for other reasons than housing need.  

A fever driven bubble perhaps ?

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