Property

The dark side of the city's burgeoning apartment business

Falling rents and bad property managers threaten to bring down the grubby end of Auckland's apartment market, creating Hong Kong-style slums.

Sunday, March 20th 2005

While there is no evidence of a market-wide apartment crash - overall demand for apartments remains strong - the seedier of the city's 11,000 apartments are suffering what property watchers call a "market correction".

Most affected are low-quality one-bedroom apartments, let to students, where rents have fallen by as much as $40 a week, unnerving owners and frightening off prospective buyers.

These apartments were bought in some cases by heavily leveraged buyers for as little as $1000 down on the promise of guaranteed rental income for two years. With rental guarantees expiring and a fall in the number of immigrants and foreign students, who traditionally underpin the apartment rental market, sale prices for smaller, less-desirable units have fallen.

Mayor Dick Hubbard, who last year threatened to rid the city of "ghetto-type" apartments, said the council would insist that developers took account of aesthetics when planning their projects. He said he would also seek to amend the district plan to stop developers building ever-smaller apartments.

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Heartland Bank - Online 6.69
SBS FirstHome Combo 6.74
Wairarapa Building Society 6.95
Unity 6.99
Co-operative Bank - First Home Special 7.04
ICBC 7.05
China Construction Bank 7.09
BNZ - Classic 7.24
ASB Bank 7.24
ANZ Special 7.24
TSB Special 7.24
Unity First Home Buyer special 6.45
Heartland Bank - Online 6.45
China Construction Bank 6.75
TSB Special 6.75
ICBC 6.75
ANZ Special 6.79
ASB Bank 6.79
AIA - Go Home Loans 6.79
Kiwibank Special 6.79
BNZ - Classic 6.79
Unity 6.79
Westpac Special 6.39
China Construction Bank 6.40
ICBC 6.49
SBS Bank Special 6.55
Kiwibank Special 6.55
BNZ - Classic 6.55
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 6.55
ASB Bank 6.55
AIA - Go Home Loans 6.55
TSB Special 6.59
Kainga Ora 6.99
SBS FirstHome Combo 6.19
AIA - Back My Build 6.19
ANZ Blueprint to Build 7.39
Credit Union Auckland 7.70
ICBC 7.85
Heartland Bank - Online 7.99
Pepper Money Essential 8.29
Co-operative Bank - Owner Occ 8.40
Co-operative Bank - Standard 8.40
First Credit Union Standard 8.50
Kiwibank 8.50

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