Rental Market Sees Supply Down and Rent Up

Rental Market Sees Supply Down and Rent Up

The national supply of properties for rent continues to decrease, but the decline has slowed according to an analysis of Trade Me Property’s listings over the past 3 months.

Across New Zealand, the supply of rentals for the quarter ending 30 September was down 12% when compared to the same period last year. In the June quarter this drop was 18%.

With supply continuing to contract, demand also shot up, with 12% more messages from prospective tenants being sent than in the same quarter in 2009. Waitakere led the way, with demand soaring by almost 50% in the quarter.

Rents also continued to tick up. In the September quarter, the average national rent was up 5% compared to the same period last year, and on a par with the rent increase observed in the June quarter. Auckland stood out as the only city to see rents increase by double figures: up 11%.

Trade Me Property head Brendon Skipper said Auckland City (down 30%), Waitakere (down 32%) and Christchurch (down 27%) all saw supply for rental property contract significantly in the quarter.

“The Auckland rental market continues to tighten which is not great news for tenants but potentially good news for landlords as they look to renew long-term leases over the upcoming Christmas period.

“Obviously in Christchurch the earthquake has had an impact and it’s no surprise that people have had higher priorities than heading online to list a property for rent.”

He noted there had been a massive dip in activity in the Garden City over the weekend of the earthquake. “We then noted a surge of enquiries with hundreds of prospective tenants asking landlords about the impact of the quake on properties they were interested in.”

Only a handful of properties had been delisted since the earthquake occurred.

Mr Skipper said it was too early to make accurate observations about the city’s rental market. “Christchurch people have demonstrated remarkable resilience in the aftermath of the earthquake, and we’d expect that ‘let’s get on with it’ attitude is likely to be reflected in the rental property market too.”

Other interesting findings:

• In Auckland, supply was down across all sizes of rentals, and rents for 2 and 3-bedroom properties drove the rent increase.

• In Wellington, the supply of 2 and 3-bedroom rentals was up 20%, and there was an explosion of apartment listings (up 25%).

• Hamilton was unusual in that the supply remained at a similar level to 2009.

ENDS

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