Home > Our Publications > New Zealand Outlook > 2002 > October

IF YOU plan to settle in and around Auckland you should be prepared to rent initially and be prepared to pay top dollar if you want an executive-style home.
There is currently a shortage in the supply of both houses for sale and rental.
This particularly applies to rental properties - especially at the higher end of the price range.
Making the problem more acute is the fact that people are renting for longer and tend to stick fast once they have found a rental property.
That's the trend of property renters observed by Harcourts' Northern Regional Manager, Jo-Anne Clifford.
Mrs Clifford said the Auckland market in particular was experiencing ongoing demand for good quality property to rent including the executive end of the market.
The high population growth in Auckland was also a factor in the demand.
She added because of the shortage of property for sale in most categories, many people moving to Auckland were having to rent initially before finding something suitable to purchase.
Given the traffic issues the city was facing, central city property was in particularly high demand.
When it came to rental property investors, Mrs Clifford said they tended to approach buying from a more critical and analytical angle, rather than making a decision based on emotion which those buying a home often did.
And yet despite demand to purchase rental investments, Mrs Clifford noted there was still reluctance to expand beyond the traditional house to investing in apartments. "People often admit they don't know a lot about what it means to own an apartment and as a result can be wary about investing in that market. At the end of the day, it will be a matter of educating the public."
* Contact Harcourts on www.harcourts.co.nz