Source: Radio New Zealand
The drops would no doubt come as welcome news for renters, Realestate.co.nz says. RNZ / Quin Tauetau
Rents have fallen in most parts of New Zealand, according to Realestate.co.nz
Its latest data shows the national average asking rental price in April was $631 a week.
That was down from $640 at the same time last year and $660 at the peak.
The biggest fall was in the central North Island, where the average asking rent dropped from $619 to $566. That was followed by Gisborne, down 5.4 percent from $664 to $628.
Auckland’s asking rent fell from $702 to $690, Wellington’s from $647 to $620, while Canterbury’s increased from $581 to $587.
Both Nelson and Waikato had record rental prices, at $617 and $583 a week, respectively.
There were 5.1 percent more listings available, although Wellington had a drop of 26 percent.
Spokesperson Vanessa Williams said it would be welcome news for renters and came in a wider context of tougher economic times.
She said the peak of the market had been a strange time, before people started leaving the country in larger numbers and while legislation was changing.
“There was a whole bunch of investment properties that got taken out of the rental pool, thinking everyone was going to sell… values dropped from the peak of the market so they put them back into the rental pool again.
“Everybody is just considering the way they live because the cost of living has just continued to grow… outside of rent, everything else is growing.
“While it’s down $30 from $660 to $630, $30 a week doesn’t really go far when you think of the cost of insurance, power and food.’
She said it was still tough on renters in places like Central Otago Lakes, where the average was $860.
“For most people renting down there, tourism workers and hospitality workers, that’s a really kind of hard pill to swallow.”
She said it was likely that rents would remain soft through the rest of the year, while the economy was weak.
But Williams said people should do their market research before they asked their landlord to reduce their rent.
“Depending on how lovely your landlord is, if they haven’t done too many price increases, you might actually be in a house that’s well below the market anyway.
“That is something for people to consider if they are looking to move. Just do a bit of market research around what the size of your house and it’s renting for at the moment. Because if you have been in there for a while, and your landlord’s quite kind, you actually might be in a pretty good spot.”
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