Landlords are asking record high rents, but rent data shows that the actual amounts paid by tenants remain broadly the same or even fall in some areas.
Trade Me released data today suggesting the median rents landlords were asking for was $600 for the first time ever.
However, based on data on actual rents paid, CoreLogic reported that landlords had lost the upper hand and rents remained flat or even fell.
Nowhere is the gap between what landlords want and what they seem to achieve as clear as in Auckland and Wellington.
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Trade Me reported that renters in central Wellington asked for broken records in February for $695 a week.
The online marketplace, meanwhile, reported in central Auckland that advertised rents hit a new high of $620.
However, CoreLogic found that rents fell in Auckland, where they sat at $583 a week, down 0.8% a year, and fell in Wellington, where they sat at $595 a week, down 3.7% per year.
The insights were incorporated into the real estate data company’s housing graph package, which stated: “After a period in which landlords dominated (and implemented large rent increases), growth is now slowing nationally.”
But the rents didn’t all go in one direction.
In Hamilton, rents were up 4% annually to $466 per week, in Tauranga they were up nearly 8% to $614, and in Christchurch they were up to $493.
CoreLogic noted that mortgage lenders are not very active in the market right now.
“That’s not surprising given 40% down payments, low rental yields, the abolition of the interest deduction and higher compliance costs,” the report said.
Gavin Lloyd, Trade Me’s director of real estate sales, said rental growth typically accelerated during the summer months.
Delivered
How rents have changed according to CoreLogic
Trade Me originally published its data claiming rents had hit record highs before clarifying insights that actually related to the amounts landlords were asking for.
“Our data and Corelogic’s are not contradictory, but come from different places and tell different parts of the story, and refer to different months,” a spokeswoman said.
“Our data explains what landlords are asking for – it’s the advertised price on Trade Me for February.