NZ’s biggest build-to-rent scheme live

Pet-friendly $200m Mt Wellington project hits market

Resido, New Zealand’s largest build-to-rent apartment project, has hit the market with NZX-listed Kiwi Property Group advertising tours of its new

295 units at Mt Wellington, although move-in dates will not begin until next month.

Kiwi said apartment applications went live on the new Resido site yesterday and units start at $697 a week, two-bedroom twobathroom 90sq m places are $921 a week, while the same number of bedrooms and bathrooms in a 76-80sq m place is $889 a week.

Tour bookings for the $200 million nearly finished project are now open for those wanting to see inside the petfriendly high-rise homes before development completion soon.

Shelly Jenkin, Kiwi’s national assets manager, said Resido could change the way New Zealanders live.

The apartment blocks, built by national construction business Naylor Love, headed by Bruno Goedeke, are off the Mt Wellington Highway at 27 Lynton Rd.

The place has a gym, rooftop barbecue and entertaining area, co-working spaces and on-site management.

Three towers of apartments are next door to the Sylvia Park shopping centre, also owned by Kiwi.

This is the first time an NZXlisted company has offered rental accommodation, although businesses like Fletcher Building develop new homes, but those are all sold, not rented. Fletcher does, however, have a retirement village business selling occupation rights agreements, which are akin to renting, but with far fewer rights.

The Resido apartments are in blocks up to 12 levels high and have common areas for residents.

The first residents will be able to move in from mid-May. People with pets were welcome and could get an on-site dog walk and dog wash service, Jenkin said.

Bike sharing, electric vehicle charging and double glazing make for a greener and easier life, Kiwi says, citing the many restaurants, cafes and shops next door, and a train station nearby as well.

Kiwi chief executive Clive Mackenzie said in December he saw huge opportunities for the growth of the build-to-rent (BTR) residential sector in New Zealand. “Build-to-rent is an exciting new way of living that will offer Kiwis a combination of quality accommodation, secure tenancies and great amenities. With the number of renters in Auckland growing sharply, our aim is to help alleviate the current housing shortfall while delivering a superior renting experience,” Mackenzie said.

How long people will live at Resido is governed by law. Usually, tenants need to give only 28 days’ notice and landlords 90 days under nonfixed term, or periodic, tenancies, but Tenancy Services says a BTR tenant with a 10-year term must give 56 days’ notice to terminate.

Mackenzie thinks people will put down sticks for a long time at Kiwi’s new towers.

“We want people to stay,” he says, referring to overseas studies showing that if you make a friend in BTR housing, your chances of staying increase exponentially. “We’ll offer furnished places too.” Build-to-rent is a relatively new concept to New Zealand, but is popular with institutional investors in Australia and the United States, and New Zealand’s Property Council has focused on it lately as larger investors eye up the concept.

Build-to-rent is where professional or corporate investors develop and then hold residential property, in return for a stable income stream from long-term tenancies.

It has not been mainstream here before. But that is changing fast.

Leonie Freeman, chief executive of the Property Council, has described housing as one of this country’s biggest issues, citing the need to solve blockages and barriers to delivering more places.

With the number of renters in Auckland growing sharply, our aim is to help alleviate the current housing shortfall while delivering a superior renting experience,

Kiwi CEO Clive Mackenzie