Tony Mitchell: Residential Property Managers' Association Chair on landlords offering incentives to prospective renters

Landlords offering incentives to entice tenants is said to be a simple supply and demand issue. 

Rental listings in Auckland and Wellington have seen investors offer free weeks of rent, or bonuses like supermarket vouchers and even free moped scooters for people who sign on to a lease. 

Residential Property Managers' Association Chair Tony Mitchell told Mike Hosking investors are fighting for tenants due to a lack of demand. 

He expects it to be only a temporary thing and hopes the strong underlying demand factors will make a difference soon. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Depends on any given day who you listen to and
who you believe to on housing. See one unionist yesterday
telling us the middle class can't afford rent, while an
agent tells us grocery vouches are being offered to get
renters into houses, no shortage of houses. Rentals in Auckland
alone are up thirty four percent on last year. Now,
the Residential Property Managers Association chair as Tony Mitchell, is

(00:20):
with u's Tony, very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Good morning Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Is it a renter's market right at the minute?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yes, there are more properties on the market than there
is for our demand.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
The level of variation depending on which part of the
market or the country, or the city or the suburb
you're looking at, is it vast or not?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Well, Look, I do think you need to take into
consideration not only the part of the country but also
departs of the city, because whilst rental prices have come back,
probably from August twenty twenty four three to now, it
hasn't come back in some areas within Auckland. If you
look at some of the suburbs just on the city fringe,
they are still strong. But if you look at it

(00:59):
out West. If you look at out South, those prices
have certainly dropped, but we are seeing that throughout New
Zealand as well. But we do expect that to only
be a temporary thing because the underlying factors for demand
are quite strong. So you've still got strong immigration as
well coming through.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Are the rule changes around being a landlord helping or
hindering broadly.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Look, I think in general they're a very positive thing
and it will help making properties available, but the underlying
factors that have caused the oversupply, it's not due to
the changes that the government's put in place. It's mostly
due to the large number of new builds that have
hit the market. Plus also tends have been a little

(01:42):
bit more conservative with making changes because in the cost
of living's gone up and they are being very cautious
about committeing. We've also seen some layoffs. I know you
mentioned Wellington. Before you know Wellington, the feedback from rental
property managers and businesses down there is that the layoffs
within government has had an impact of well so it
does vary. As you said, christ Church is still strong,

(02:04):
but they have had a good supply of rental properties
since the earthquakes. Since the rebuild, so they haven't had
the spikes in price inflation.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Great stuff, Tony, appreciate your insight. Tony Mitchell, a Residential
Property Managers Association chairperson. We've been doing a little bit
of work on a rental at the moment and we're
going to put it on the market again shortly, and
the person who's in charge of the renovation, who may
or may not be a member of my family, decided
not to put the new doorknobs on. She's not saving money.

(02:37):
There no new doorknobs. So I'm just saying, if you know,
if we don't let it could be the door knobs.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
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