Median weekly rents hit all-time high on Trade Me

Auckland rent increases have picked up the pace this year after a period of slower growth, according to two new sets of rental data.

Trade Me Property has released its latest Rental Price Index, which shows the national median weekly rent climbed to a record $650 in March.

That’s up 8.3% from $600 at the same time last year, and Trade Me Property sales director Gavin Lloyd said it was well above the annual average increase of 6%.

“While it's not the biggest annual increase we've ever seen, it is unusual to see it this high in March. We’d normally expect to see the market cool slightly as we start heading into the colder months.”

The biggest increase was in the Manawatū/ Whanganui region where rents were up 10% annually to $550. Southland and Otago rents followed, up 9.3% and 9.1% to $470 and $600 respectively. But Auckland rents remained the highest in the country in March, with a weekly median of $690. They were up 6.2% annually, and from $680 the previous month.

The median weekly rent in the Wellington region was $650, which was unchanged from the same time last year, and down from $670 in February. In Canterbury, rents were up 5.6% annually to a weekly median of $570. That was up from $565 the previous month.

Lloyd said rental demand was down 22% annually, while supply was up 3% in March, and there was likely to be a way to go before supply caught up with demand.

“But if this continues, with fewer people competing for more properties we'd expect to see prices stabilise or even fall, which will be welcome news for renters looking for a new home.”

Meanwhile, new figures from Auckland’s largest real estate agency showed rents in the region had the biggest increase in over eight years in the year to March.

Auckland’s average weekly rent across the 17,500 properties on Barfoot & Thompson's books was $671 in March, according to its latest quarterly rental update which covers new and existing tenancies. That was an increase of 5.69% on the average of $634 at the same time last year. It surpassed the 5.27% annual increase recorded in December which, at the time, was the highest since 2015.

In the year to December 2015, the average rent went up by 6.62%.

Barfoot & Thompson’s general manager for property management Samantha Arnold said the numbers indicated Auckland’s rental market had entered a new pricing cycle.

Over recent months it had been emerging from a slower period of pricing change after hovering around 3% annual growth for some time, she said.

“What we are seeing now is more familiar to the market pace experienced eight to 10 years ago, in 2014 to 2016.”

The tension between high demand for rental properties and constrained supply was a significant factor, and although not a new dynamic, it had been compounded by several factors, she said.

They included the return of international students, record high migration and the ongoing impact of 2023’s extreme weather events, which saw more people in need of housing and fewer houses available due to storm damage.

Rents rose by more than 3.75% annually in every part of the region, but the biggest increase was in apartment-dominated Auckland central where they were up 8.56% to an average of $573.

Franklin and the rural Manukau area had the second highest increase at 6.70% to an average of $594, while rents rose least in Rodney, up 3.75% to $670.