Super City rental market star

Last year was marked by slow paced rent rises across Auckland, but the real estate agency’s latest quarterly rental update has signs that trend in changing.

While weekly rent increases across the city held in-line with last year and rose by just 3.2% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2019, some segments of the market began to regain ground.

The market segments with the highest quarterly year-on-year increases include two and three-bedroom apartments in the CBD, and two-bedroom homes in other parts of the city.

Barfoot & Thompson Director Kiri Barfoot says two-bedroom properties are a clear performer across the market, even when the growth of high-end two-bedroom city apartments is factored in.

“This segment of the market saw a 4.6% increase in weekly rent in the first quarter of 2019, compared to the same period last year.

“In the final quarter of 2018 the comparative increase was 4.3%, and prior to that just 4.0%, so the figures are slowly turning the other way.”

One and three-bedroom properties saw small lifts in their quarterly year-on year increases also but price growth remained flat for four and five-bedroom homes, she says.

“Indeed, weekly rents for larger properties rose just 1.46% this quarter, and in some areas of the city prices actually retreated for four and five-bedroom properties.”

The data shows the biggest gains by area were seen in Central Auckland, where high-end two and three-bedroom apartments continue to drive up average weekly rents.

There was a 9.7% increase for CBD rentals between the first quarters of 2018 and 2019.

This means a three-bedroom apartment now costs an average of $1,092 per week to rent, which is almost double the average for a home of a similar size elsewhere in Auckland.

Slight gains were also seen in the Eastern suburbs, Rodney and Pakuranga/Howick areas, while the South, West and North of the city experienced a slowing in price rises.

Barfoot says this may be more reflective of the demand cycles that all areas go through, as there has previously been very strong weekly rent growth in South and West Auckland in recent years.

“The factors behind the movements were varied, but it may reflect the need some landlords have to recoup the increasing costs of owning and maintaining their rental property.”