We Won an Auckland Business Award!
On 2nd September, we won the Excellence in Customer Experience award at the 2degrees Auckland Business Awards (North and West region). We'd been finalists for the past two years, so to finally take home an award was a pretty special night for the whole team.
The category was sponsored by Barfoot & Thompson, and their director Henry Barfoot presented us with the trophy. Henry called it a very New Zealand moment, handing a customer service award to one of his competitors. You can read more about the night here, or see all of our awards.
We were also featured in NZ Property Investor magazine, where Mike talks about why this award means so much to us. Have a read of "Recognition from rivals" here.
A big thank you to our team, and to all of our owners and tenants. We couldn't have done it without you.
Residential Rental Market: Has It Turned a Corner?
In our last update, we said rents may have found the floor, and it looks like they had, and we might be turning the corner now. Trade Me's national median rent rose to $625 a week in August, up $5 on the same month last year. That's the first year-on-year increase since January 2025, after 18 months of flat or falling rents (Trade Me, 25th September). July was flat at $620.
Fewer rentals are coming onto the market and more tenants are looking. New rental listings nationally were down 4% on last year in August, and tenant demand was up 3%.
Auckland's median dipped from $660 in June to $655 in July, then went back up to $660 in August. Trade Me's September figures haven't been released yet, so we'll include those next time.
Regional Picture
Otago is now the most expensive region, after jumping almost 8% in one month to $700 a week (ski season and students both play a part). Auckland and Bay of Plenty are next at $660. Canterbury hit a record $600, up 1.7% on last year, and Wellington is up $10 on last year to $600, which is good news for Wellington landlords after a couple of tough years. Waikato was $595 in August, up 2.6% on last year.
Migration
Net migration is on the up again. Stats NZ's latest figures show a net gain of 20,350 people in the year to July 2026, more than double the 9,592 in the year to July 2025 (interest.co.nz, 14th September).
Most of that is down to fewer Kiwis leaving. We still lost a net 38,335 New Zealand citizens over the year, but the number heading overseas long-term has been dropping since it peaked in 2024. On the other side, we gained a net 58,685 people who aren't New Zealand citizens. More people staying and arriving means more people needing somewhere to live, which is good news for rental demand.
What's Happening at Aspire
We rented 145 homes between July and September, up from 139 in Q2 and 121 in the same quarter last year. That's almost 20% more than a year ago, and Q3 is usually one of the slower quarters for finding tenants.
There are also fewer homes competing for tenants in Auckland. We keep an eye on the number of rental listings Trade Me publishes on its site, and in Auckland it dropped from 5,894 at the start of July to 5,439 by the end of September, down about 8%. That's the lowest we've seen since March (5,263), and well down on last November (6,321). It's crept back up to 5,602 in October, which is normal as spring listings start coming through. In Waikato, listings went from 776 to 734, and Bay of Plenty was flat (469 to 467).
In July and August we hosted 421 viewings and had 895 people come through, a bit up on the same two months last year (413 viewings and 874 people). We received 750 applications from those viewings, up 19% on last year, and around 3,500 enquiries from tenants across the quarter.
Homes are taking a little longer to rent. The median time from going online to signing a tenancy was 22.5 days this quarter, compared with 20 days in Q2 and in the same quarter last year. Like we said last time, winter is always slower, with tenants taking their time to look around before committing.
The median weekly rent on the homes we rented this quarter was $700, up $20 on last year and down from $720 in Q2. That figure moves around depending on which homes we happen to rent in the quarter, so we'd say rents have been steady rather than dropping.
So, what does this all mean? If your rent review is due, our advice is the same as last quarter: in most cases, keep your rent where it is unless your property is clearly under the market. There has been upward movement in larger home rents (5+ bedrooms), so if you have one of those, your rent may increase. Your property manager will chat with you before any changes in rent are made.
Interest Rates
The Reserve Bank put the OCR up twice this quarter, to 2.50% on 8th July and then to 2.75% on 2nd September, and has said it may need to go up again. The next decision is on 28th October. ANZ is picking a rise to 3% in October, and Westpac thinks it'll be December.
This is all about inflation, which was 4.1% in the year to June. The September figure comes out on 22nd October.
Even so, the lowest one-year fixed rates at the main banks are still around 5%, and two-year rates are around 5.3% to 5.4% (Ratemate, 12th October). That's a lot better than the 7%-plus rates investors were paying through 2023 and 2024.
The Housing Market
The sales market has been quiet over winter. The national median sale price was $750,000 in August, down 1.3% on last year, with sales down 13% and homes taking a median 51 days to sell (REINZ via interest.co.nz, 15th September). Westpac now expects house prices to fall 1.4% over 2026 (Westpac, 9th October). If you're thinking about buying your next investment property, there's plenty of choice out there at the moment. Get in touch with Sam Hewetson if you have any questions about buying or selling.
The Election
The election is on Saturday 7th November, and advance voting starts on 26th October. We're not going to tell anyone how to vote, but here's a quick summary of what the main parties have announced that affects landlords:
- National has promised no new taxes and would lift the income cap for First Home Loans to $300,000 (1News, 6th September).
- Labour has ruled out changes to interest deductibility and would bring in a targeted capital gains tax on investment property instead (1News, 21st September).
- The Greens would cap rent increases at 2% a year, end no-cause terminations, bring in a rental warrant of fitness and reverse the interest deductibility changes (RNZ).
- ACT is against capital gains and wealth taxes on property, and wants to make it easier to build.
We'll let you know what the result means for landlords in our next update.
What's Next for the Rental Market?
Rents look to be slowly moving back in landlords' favour, with less supply and more demand.
Kelvin Davidson, chief property economist at Cotality, told RNZ in September that after 12 to 18 months of falling rents there were "hints of a floor", but added: "I don't think it necessarily gives way to a big boom in rents" (RNZ, 8th September). He also pointed out that compared with incomes, rents have already had "a big adjustment". Rising migration should help demand over time.
Spring and summer are the busiest time of year for people to be changing tenancies or looking for their first rental, so if rents are going to lift, we'd expect to see it over the next six months.
Out in the Community
We love supporting our local community, and this quarter:
- We've renewed our annual sponsorship of the Takapuna Cricket Club.
- We're continuing to sponsor Milford School, with their next event being their Centenary on Labour Weekend.
- We're sponsoring and playing in the Westlake Girls Golf Day in November.
Our Portfolio Is Growing
Our portfolio has kept growing over the last quarter. We now manage 1,293 properties, 1,211 residential and 82 commercial, across Auckland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty. That's up from 1,219 in July.
