New Zealand's rental divide deepens as average weekly rents rise and fall across the motu
Latest data from realestate.co.nz shows the national average weekly rent reached $637 in August, up just 1.5% – or around $9 a week – compared with $628 per week in August 2025.
But the national figure masks considerable regional variation, with rents moving in both directions across the motu.
Marlborough recorded the strongest annual growth, with the average weekly rent rising 8.2% from $511 to $553. Canterbury was up 5.7% to $622, while Otago increased 5.6% to $653 and Waikato was up 4.1% to a record $587 per week.
At the other end of the spectrum, average weekly rents declined year-on-year on the West Coast (-6.5%), Gisborne (-5.2%), Southland (-4.8%), Manawatū/Whanganui (4.5%) and Wairarapa (-3.3%).
Sarah Wood, CEO of realestate.co.nz, says the divergence is a reminder that there is no single New Zealand rental market.
Population movement, employment, local economies, and of course supply, can all influence demand, and those factors don't move uniformly across New Zealand. For renters and landlords alike, the market that matters most is increasingly the one in their own backyard."
Highlights of the New Zealand Rental Report – August 2026:

• Waikato reaches record high rent of $587 per week in August, up 4.1% from $564 a year earlier.
• Wellington also recorded above-average growth, rising 3.6% to $621 per week.
• Auckland remained steady with an average weekly rent increase of just 0.8% year-on-year, from approximately $684 to $689.
• The number of properties for rent at the end of August was 8,379, just 0.9% higher than the 8,303 available in August 2025.

The argument goes like this: every dollar that goes into residential property is a dollar that should have gone into a "productive" business. Property investors add nothing. They simply outbid first-home buyers, sit back, collect rent and clip the ticket. It is a neat political slogan. It is also wrong, and dangerous.

Monthly rental market update
13 May 2026

Renter activity stabilises in April, renters continue to prioritise affordability

Renter activity eased in April following several record-setting months, but remained well ahead of the same time last year.

Barfoot & Thompson received more than 24,450 enquiries about properties for rent during April, dropping from a recent peak of over 32,000, but still 25.4 percent higher than in April 2025.

The number of people viewing and applying to rent properties followed a similar pattern, with both measures down in March but up 12.1 percent and 19.4 percent respectively year-on-year.

A total of 574 properties were let during the month, 9.1 percent more than April 2025.

Anil Anna, General Manager Property Management at Barfoot & Thompson, says the April dip was not unexpected coming off several strong months of activity, and given the coincidence of school holidays, Easter and ANZAC Day during the month.

"Many households looking to settle into a new home at the start of the year will now have done so, while ongoing economic uncertainty and cost of living pressures could be making people more cautious about moving," he adds.

Pricing conditions across Auckland, Northland and Bay of Plenty remained broadly stable through April, reinforcing that the market continues to be driven more by value and affordability than urgency.

For example, the average weekly rent in Auckland was virtually unchanged from last month, sitting at $696.29 in April, down 46 cents from March and increasing less than 1 percent year-on-year.

"While renter engagement remains well ahead of where it was this time last year, affordability is playing a big role in renters' price expectations and decision-making," says Anil.
The proportion of properties rented at their initial advertised price continued to increase in April, with more than 70 percent securing tenants without requiring a reduction.

"This is the highest proportion we've seen for two years and points to stronger alignment between landlord expectations and what renters are prepared to pay.
"Landlords who price realistically from the start are generally seeing stronger engagement and faster results, which can be especially important as renter demand levels off."

The landlords are looking to score up to $1.5 billion from the federal government, as individuals are reporting losses between thousands of dollars to almost $15 million.

Peers have challenged the government over the Renters’ Rights Act after data showed 110,000 landlords are expected to leave the private rented sector this year.

Wellington has kicked off the year with a record number of properties listed for rent.
Latest data from realestate.co.nz shows in January, Wellington reached a record high of 965 properties listed for rent, a whopping 54.2% more rental listings than the same time last year.
Meanwhile, Otago's new rental listings were down 32.9% year-on-year, with just 139 properties listed for rent this January, compared to 207 in January 2025.
Vanessa Williams, spokesperson for realestate.co.nz says it’s very much a tale of two cities.
"For students heading back to campus, where you study has a big impact on your rental experience. The data shows just how important timing and location are."
Key findings from the January 2026 New Zealand Rental Report include:

• The national average rent falls to $634/week, down 2.0% year-on-year
• In Wellington, the average weekly rent has fallen 8.9% year-on-year to $659/week
• In Auckland the average rent is $686/week, down just 1.8% on January 2025.
• National rental stock increased 9.8% in January 2026, with 7,830 rental properties available compared to 7,129 properties in January 2025.
• Hawke's Bay recorded the greatest year-on-year increase in stock levels, up 115.8% compared to January 2025 to 123 properties.

Release and data attached.
Vanessa Williams is available for interviews. Please let me know if you'd like to arrange one.
Nga mihi
Ann

Te Toi Mahana builds a foundation for growth and community impact with Nintex

Wellington, New Zealand – January 28, 2025 –Nintex, the global leader in agentic business orchestration, today announced that Te Toi Mahana, Wellington’s largest residential landlord and leading provider of affordable homes, has implemented Nintex to strengthen service consistency, compliance, and operational resilience as the organisation enters its next phase of growth.

Te Toi Mahana was established in 2023 as a charitable community housing provider that took over Wellington City Council’s public housing portfolio and works to grow affordable housing supply across the city.

Te Toi Mahana focuses on providing safe, warm, and dry homes for nearly 3,000 people and aims to add 500 affordable homes over the next ten years. With growth and complex service needs, the organisation needed a way to document, standardise, and scale operational processes, without compromising the quality of service, safety, or compliance to its tenants during its transition.

“Te Toi Mahana is only two years old, so establishing a new organisation while continuing to deliver essential housing services was a huge challenge,” said Sebastian Abril, Service Development Manager, Te Toi Mahana. “We had to build a strong foundation and deliver consistency quickly, to make sure tenants, staff, and partners could rely on us from day one. Our focus was on giving people the tools, clarity, and confidence to deliver great service, even in a fast-changing environment.”

Te Toi Mahana adopted Nintex Process Manager to map and manage end-to-end processes across maintenance, tenancy management, anti-social behaviour response, health and safety, recruitment, and onboarding.

By defining clear ownership, review cycles, and compliance checkpoints, the organisation is making information easier to find and decisions faster to make, helping frontline teams spend more time supporting tenants and less time chasing answers.

“The biggest impact of adopting Nintex Process Manager as a young organisation is how it has changed the way we work with our frontline teams as we standardise our practice,” Abril said. “By starting to use Nintex University, both our specialists and our people on the ground are not only building professional capability in process mapping, but they are also informing how decisions are made. Their questions, real-world challenges, and insights directly shape the standards we create, which has made the work more engaging and empowering.”

“With clearer processes, we are already seeing opportunities to reduce duplication, cut unnecessary email traffic, and improve how we collaborate. There is a shared sense of ownership unique in this project. Everyone understands their role in the bigger picture and continues to define the level of quality, assurance, and service we strive for. Ultimately, that means safer, faster outcomes for our tenants.”

The benefits have extended beyond day-to-day operations. Having accessible, well-documented processes has made onboarding new staff easier and strengthened internal communication, supporting a culture of accountability and collaboration.

Te Toi Mahana has since been recognised among New Zealand’s Best Places to Work for two consecutive years, reflecting its people-first approach. Just one year after its establishment, tenant engagement remained strong with a 76% approval rating in its first survey, up from 75% in the previous assessment, despite the organisation’s rapid transition from local government service to an independent, not-for-profit housing provider.

While Te Toi Mahana’s current focus is on process management, the organisation is laying the foundation for future automation and AI use cases. The team is already exploring how Nintex AI Document Processing can assist with drafting process documentation, supporting compliance reviews, and validating legal requirements.

“We’re a young organisation, but we’ve already learned that structure gives you space to grow,” Abril said. “With clear processes and reliable information, we can evolve faster, stay compliant, and focus on what matters most, supporting people to live safely and with dignity.”

“Social housing providers like Te Toi Mahana carry an enormous responsibility, every process directly impacts people’s lives,” said Keith Payne, Regional Vice President, APAC at Nintex. “By building a culture of consistency and clarity, they’re showing how process excellence can scale purpose-driven organisations without losing their human touch.”

To learn more about how Nintex is helping customers unlock possibilities through agentic business orchestration, please clickhere.

About Nintex
Nintex, the possibility engine™, helps organisations unlock the power of agentic business orchestration by combining process intelligence, workflow orchestration, low-code development, and agentic AI to build solutions designed for their unique business challenges. Today, more than 7,000 public and private sector organisations across more than 100 countries rely on Nintex and its global partner network to supercharge business process orchestration, create purpose-built solutions, and unlock the full potential of their people. Learn more about how Nintex and its global partner network are propelling people, work, and business forward at nintex.com.

About Te Toi Mahana
Te Toi Mahana is the largest residential landlord and leading provider of affordable housing in Wellington. Te Toi Mahana provides safe, warm and affordable homes to almost 3,000 tenants and manages approximately 1,900 properties throughout the capital.
Te Toi Mahana is a registered Community Housing Provider (CHP) and Charity. A CHP is a regulated entity that provides social, affordable and/or community housing and is registered with Community Housing Regulatory Authority (CHRA).
Te Toi Mahana commenced operations in August 2023 and took over the management of Wellington City Council’s social housing services. More information can be found atwww.tetoimahana.org.nz


Jacob Penfold | Senior Consultant
Watterson PR | DIGITAL | SOCIAL

Interest rates don't crash property markets. Demand does. Look at New Zealand. Population growth stalled, unemployment climbed, young people left the country. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut rates aggressively, but property prices stayed well below their 2021 peak. Australia tells a different story. We added 420,000 people in the year to June 2025. Seventy-three percent came from net overseas migration. Every one of those people needs somewhere to live today. That creates real demand pressure on Australian property. The labour market holds up, policy settings pull demand forward, and supply stays tight. Australia's property market operates under fundamentally different conditions than New Zealand's correction. For investors who want to understand Australian property market risks and opportunities, this data-driven comparison shows exactly what would need to happen for prices to fall.

"We made the decision to censure Opes because there were shortcomings in its record keeping, how it ensures client understanding of its advice, its management of conflicts of interest and oversight of its advisers," FMA Executive Director for Response and Enforcement Louise Unger said.

"The firm [Opes] is vertically integrated - combining property sales, investment planning, mortgage advice and accounting and property management," Unger said.

The FMA said Opes had acknowledged its regulatory compliance, policies, procedures and staff adherence to policies had not kept pace with its rapid growth and were not fit for purpose for the business.