It’s a Renters World, and We’re…Not Living in it?

By Fergus Goodall Smith

You may have seen headlines telling you that Wellington rental prices are dropping, that it’s a renter’s market, or that with the exodus of public service workers from the capital, landlords are getting desperate. To some extent, that is true, and to a greater extent, it’s not. 

Salient asked Trade Me about the current perceptions of the rental market. Year on year, the asking price for a property in Wellington was down 2.9%, and since September 2024, Trade Me saw a 28% increase in the number of rental listings in the city. These figures might lead you to believe that rents are dropping. Well, they’re not (in most places). Between December 2024 and January 2025, the median rental price went from $650 to $675 according to Trade Me’s data.

Going further down the stats rabbit hole, Salient ventured onto Real Estate NZ, a platform for buying, selling, and renting property. Data from all transactions on Real Estate NZ showed us that rents are up in most student suburbs. In Newtown they’re up 9%, in Thorndon 8.5%, Hataitai 8%, and Kelburn 4%.  

Frankie*, a student who used to live in Mt Cook, told Salient of her personal experience dealing with rent increases recently. She and her flatmates were intending to stay in their four-bedroom place for another year when their property manager informed them that their rent would be increasing from $1000 to $1180 if they intended to re-sign the lease. “I was confused because it seemed like rents were going down based on what the media and people around me were saying” Frankie told Salient. Frankie and the rest of her flat subsequently moved further out to the upper reaches of Brooklyn where rents were cheaper.

So why are rents not going down if it’s a renter’s market? Higher rates may be the reason. Wellington City Council told Salient that the average annual amount property owners were paying in rates was $6000, a roughly 17% jump from last year. But does 6 grand entail a rent hike? That’s less than what most broke students pay in course fees every year, and we don’t own properties. Nick Goodall, head of research at CoreLogic, a property analysis firm based in Wellington, says high mortgage rates will keep rent up, but that they could stagnate over the next year or so. “Supply (rentals) remains relatively high while demand (renters) is impacted by the tough economic environment facing the city through Government fiscal restraint and high job uncertainty”. 

So, is there light at the end of the tunnel? It’s hard to say, at best we’ll get a ‘stagnation’. Maybe out of all the many economic causes, taglines and fiscal terms, greed would be the best describer of why our rents aren’t dropping. 

*Alias.