Asking rents on Trade Me Property were flat overall in May but still up 6.3% for the year

Median asking rents for homes advertised on Trade Me Property were flat overall in May compared to April but remain 6.3% higher than a year ago.

The national median asking rent for homes advertised on the website was $420 a week in May which was unchanged from April but 6.3% higher than May last year.

In Auckland, where housing pressures are greatest, the median asking rent was $490 a week, which was up $5 compared to April and up 6.5% compared to May last year.

But the monthly increase appears to have been entirely driven by a jump in the median asking rent for large houses with five or more bedrooms, which jumped from $748 a week In April to $760 a week in May, while median rents for other types of properties in the city were either unchanged from April or declined slightly.

In Auckland the median asking rent for 3-4 bedroom houses in May was $550 a week, 1-2 bedroom houses were $400 a week and apartments $450 a week, all unchanged from April, while the median asking rent for Auckland townhouses dropped to $555 a week in May from $560 in April and the median asking rent for home units also fell to $390 a week in May from from $395 in April.

On an annual basis the biggest growth in asking rents in Auckland has been for apartments, which were up 9.8% in May compared to a year earlier.

In Wellington the median asking rent was $399 in May compared to $395 in April and was 2.3% higher in May than a year earlier

In Christchurch the median asking rent declined from $450 a week in April to $440 a week In May and was down by 2.2% compared with May last year.

Asking rents for 3-4 bedroom houses in the city were unchanged from April at $490 a week which is down 2% compared with May last year, but median asking rents for 1-2 bedroom houses increased from $368 in April to $380 in May, up 8.6% compared to May last year.

Compared to April, median asking rents for apartments in Christchurch declined by $5 a week to $380, home units were down by $10 a week to $330, while median asking rents for townhouses were up by $10 a week to $450.

Nigel Jeffries, the head of Trade Me Property, said May was the weakest month for growth in asking rents so far this year.

"But that's not to say it's cheap," he said.

Jeffries said tenants on the median rent in Auckland would be paying $25,480 a year, while those on the national median would be paying $21,840 a year.

"It's also worth remembering that over the past five years the median weekly rent across New Zealand has risen 23%, from $340 to $420 and that's much, much faster than household inflation," he said.

Median asking rents on Trade Me Property in May by property types, and percentage change since May last year:

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