PHOTO: Demand soars for Wellington property, putting pressure on renters Credits: Video – Newshub ; Image – Getty
Aotearoa’s national median rent is $520 per week – in city centres like Wellington and Auckland, tenants can expect to pay more for their housing. But what about the towns that are less travelled?
High rent prices are no longer just a city problem – lower socioeconomic areas are seeing housing costs outstrip incomes and it’s forcing New Zealand’s most vulnerable out of the market.
Moerewa, a small town in Northland, is seeing its prices skyrocket, and the chair of the local marae says it’s unsustainable.
Dolly Baker told Newshub when rentals started popping up in Moerewa she was excited.
“I thought great, great for the community, great for people looking to buy
But what we’ve found is that it’s not people who are local who are buying them – the people who are buying them are buying them for rental properties, for investments.”
She has no problem with investments – but when the cost for that investment is passed on to the vulnerable it starts to impact the community she holds dear to her heart.
“We have lots of whānau moving home who haven’t established themselves in work, who are struggling and who can’t afford these prices.”
Data from Trade Me shows median rent in the far north, where Moerewa sits, has skyrocketed in the last year, up 16 percent to $430, and demand for rentals has more than doubled.
For comparison, the median income in the town is just $19,400.
“It’s just, in my opinion, too high,” says Baker.
She says the prices are so unattainable some houses have multiple families in them just to try and scrape by.
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