'Pain' for property investors as rental listing levels hit high
One property investor says there is pain for some investors in the rental market as listings reach record numbers.
Trade Me Property says the number of homes available for rent has reached a level not seen in more than 10 years.
There were 41% more rental listings in March than in the same month last year, the highest number since 2014.
"I think there's quite a few contributing factors at the moment," said Trade Me Property customer director Gavin Lloyd.
"We've got a lot of new build properties that have come to market in certain parts of the country. That's putting a lot more stock into the market.
"I also think we've seen a lot of people leaving the country and vacating rentals, so a combination of those two things is certainly having an impact in certain markets."
The high number of listings for rent was reducing what landlords could charge for their properties, too. The median rent fell 2.3% year-on-year in March, to $635 a week.
"Compared to March 2024, tenants are saving an average of $15 a week, which would add up to just under $800 a year," Lloyd said.
Median rent in Taranaki was down 4.8% year-on-year.
It was prompting some landlords to offer perks with their rental properties to entice people in.
Lloyd said that was something that had not been seen for a number of years.
"A free week's rent, even I think we've been seeing grocery vouchers and the like. So a lot of enticement to get really good tenants into properties."
Property investment coach Steve Goodey said a number of property investors were struggling.
"It's a classic oversupply, we added so many houses to the market with the Ardern [government's] incentives, that we have too many homes and renters have so many options.
"Add to that the massive increase in the cost to supply a home to market and you get a situation where landlords will have to discount to get homes full and we have a renters' market. If you have a $700-per-week house empty for eight weeks, you're $5600 down so it's better to take it down to $600 per week and get it rented in two weeks."
He said things were worse than they appeared for some parts of the market.
"Plenty of people are slowly going backwards and hiding their heads in the sand."
Lloyd said a number of properties were staying on the market longer before they were tenanted. "We're definitely seeing properties sitting on Trade Me Property a lot longer than what we've seen over the last two to three years."
But Nelson/Tasman's median weekly rent reached a record high of $600 in March. Otago's lifted 5%.
rnz.co.nz
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