Students sleep in cars as capital’s rent soars

Students in the capital are resorting to sleeping in cars overnight, a sixth year Wellington student says, as weekly rent prices surpass $600.

The current weekly median rent in Wellington has hit $615 — a national record — according to the latest Trade Me Rental Price Index. The rate is $25 per week higher than Auckland’s median.

Cameron Williams is in her final year of study at Victoria University of Wellington. She says her first flat cost her $180 per week six years ago. Now she is paying $245 per week, rent only, for her room in a five-bedroom flat in central Wellington.

She and her flatmates started looking for a property in October.

“You go to a viewing for one flat and there’ll be anywhere between 20 to 50 other people there trying to sign for the same place. With only one landlord or property manager there to try and talk to everybody.”

She has heard stories of a few friends who have simply been unable to find anywhere to live — some sleep on couches, others in their cars.

“I know of students who park up their car at the end of their work day and sleep in the car if they don’t have a couch to sleep on.

“They try and find somewhere that’s coupon parking from 8 till 8.”

Her own flat, which she and her flatmates have just signed a lease for, is $1225 a week; she says it’s expensive but she’s happy to pay it, just so she’s not homeless.

Victoria University Students Association president Michael Turnbull said much of the time, rising rents weren’t being covered by students’ living costs payments from StudyLink.

“We’re seeing students having to work upwards of 20 hours a week to afford the bare minimum, often in quite hard jobs that don’t complement their studies and impact both on their mental health and their academic success.”

The association said some students were finding rent so expensive, they were enrolling in provincial universities instead.

You go to a viewing for one flat and there’ll be anywhere between 20 to 50 other people there trying to sign for the same place.

Cameron Williams, student

“We’re hearing all sorts of horror stories about looking for flats in Wellington. People going to upwards of 27 viewings, people paying upwards of $260 for essentially a dungeon,” Turnbull said.

“There is a real need to build more student accommodation in Wellington . . . But more than just the university sector, this is also the responsibility of local and central government, to do more work supplying houses and tackling this rising rent problem.”

Wellington is the first region in New Zealand to surpass a weekly median rent of $600.