Crowded hostel Kate’s f lat-out haven
When Kate Jensen, 58, goes to sleep at night, she may wake up to seven new faces in her bedroom.
The marketing honours student has called an upmarket hostel home for more than a month and is in no rush to put her name on a flat lease.
Jensen is a former homeowner, who sold her place in Alexandra to move in with her then-partner in Whitianga. The relationship became physically abusive, so she fled to Wellington.
‘‘In the process, I lost a great deal of money, and now I can’t afford to buy a house.’’
Jensen’s sister put her up for 11⁄2 years, before she made the decision to return to study.
‘‘I knew I’d be doing serious hours and didn’t want to commute from Paraparaumu,’’ she said.
She heard about a Marion St hostel, and then its sister hostel The Dwellington in Thorndon, mere minutes from the Pipitea campus near Parliament. Both charge nightly rates that fluctuate depending on demand.
Jensen pays $32 per night, or $224 a week, and that includes a daily complimentary breakfast, electricity, internet and fresh linens. Often people who stay for longer move into a four or five-bed shared room but Jensen started in the eight-bed room to start with.
‘‘Because we all have this free breakfast of cereals, fruit, eggs and Havana coffee, people living here have a reason to come together. The environment is like being part of dynamic and strange, but friendly family.’’
Meanwhile, the price of a private bedroom in a shared flat can range from anywhere between $160 – ‘‘for a real scungy one’’, to – ‘‘something decent’’ for $270 per week. For Jensen, it was a no-brainer.
Wellington was the first region in the country to cross the $600 median weekly rent milestone, with a record-breaking $615 per week in January, according to
Trade Me’s Rental Price Index. Rents flattened at that price in February.
The median weekly rent for a three to four-bedroom house in Wellington City was $770 in February, while a one to twobedroom house was $500.
‘‘When I tell people I’m essentially renting here, they say good on you for trying it out, or you’re pretty brave.’’
But the living arrangement is a necessity, rather than a lifestyle choice: ‘‘I had to have somewhere to live and when I looked at it from a financial position while I’m a student, it is better.’’
She has a small tutoring job but otherwise survives on a $330 weekly student allowance. The most her weekly budget can stretch to spend on rent is $250, with the remainder for expenses.
Jensen has applied for council
housing, which is significantly cheaper than the market rate, but remains unflappable about her lack of permanent residence.
Wellington City Council owns 1927 properties in the capital from Miramar through to Tawa. They are at 97 per cent occupancy and the number of new applications, as of March 31, was 500.
A council-owned studio unit that might suit someone like Jensen rents for $129.50 to $161 per week, or a one-bedroom house rents for $175 to $266. However, the rates are under review and the council expects to update them within two months. Eligibility conditions are also under review.
Most people in the hostel dorm were considerate, although occasionally someone came in late at night and turned the main light on while others were sleeping, Jensen said. But the communal living ‘‘is actually quite cool’’.
‘‘The kitchen is beautiful with lots of room to do stuff. I’m trying to make more plant-based food, so I found it inspiring seeing how others cook.
‘‘I like watching Netflix in the theatre, which is a bit like an arthouse cinema. We can use the tennis courts and sauna next door, the study, and often people do yoga outside in the mornings in the garden.’’
The hostel attracts a wide cross-section of characters, she said, including a 19-year-old starting university, ‘‘quite a few’’ 24 to 30-year-old tourists who stayed through the pandemic, a British couple in their mid-50s, and a Kiwi couple in their 40s.
At the time of publication, Jensen had been offered a temporary house-sitting gig by a friend. She plans to take this for the next few weeks, then return to the hostel.