Auckland rents drop 2% from the past year

The numbers don’t lie, but sometimes landlords wish they would.

For the first time since 2009, New Zealand’s median rent actually dropped. In Auckland, the median weekly rent is $650.

Record listings are part of this story

Across the country, listings have risen by 40% in the three months leading up to May. Meanwhile, the number of rental seekers has increased by just 2.5%. Call it a classic supply-demand mismatch.

In Auckland specifically, total rental listings have grown by 10% over the past eight weeks and are 15% higher than the same time last year. Properties are sitting on the market longer, with the average rental listing taking 24 days to secure a tenant.

The great migration slowdown

With net migration taking a big hit, the rental demand pressure valve has been well and truly released. Data released by Stats NZ shows a decrease in net migration of 74% between March 2024 and March 2025: from 100,400 to just 26,400.

Remember, though, even with softening rental conditions, gross rental yields are at their highest level since early 2016, reaching 3.9% in November, up from a floor of 2.8% in late 2021. Granted, they’re still relatively low compared to mortgage rates. But they’re in decline, too.

Interest rate relief

The Reserve Bank has been busy cutting the Official Cash Rate, dropping it by a total of 250 bps since the beginning of the cycle last August to the current 3.00%. Earlier this month, the lowest one-year fixed mortgage interest rate was 4.79%.

To think, as recently as June 2025, the RBNZ reported the average floating rate on standard mortgages at 6.79% – down from 8.61% a year ago and 8.45% two years prior. Those mortgage servicing costs that were brutalising your rental yields for breakfast aren’t as scary as they once were.

Regional winners and losers

Not everyone is feeling the rental blues. While Auckland and Wellington landlords are discovering what “market forces” really mean, some regions are bucking the trend:

  • Rents in Dunedin increased by 14% in the past year to $530/week, where gross yields are the highest in the country at 4.5%.

  • Wellington’s average rental price dropped by a hefty 10.9% to $625 per week, compared to $701 per week at the same time last year.

What landlords can do in the current market

  • Focus on retention: Good tenants are valuable. To encourage them to stay longer, treat them well, respond to maintenance requests promptly, and ensure any rent increases are not above market value.

  • Price realistically: While rent is only down 2–3% in most areas, landlords may have to reduce rent by more than this or offer incentives (like a free week’s rent) to attract tenants in particular suburbs or property types.

The rental market has hit a speed bump, not a brick wall

While it’s still expensive to be a tenant, the balance of power has shifted slightly. It’s not suddenly easy to rent, but it is nevertheless a friendlier market for tenants than it has been in recent years.

For landlords, this is less ‘apocalypse’ and more ‘market correction’. The days of automatic annual rent increases might be on pause, but the fundamentals haven’t changed: New Zealand still has a housing shortage, immigration will eventually pick up, and people still need places to live.

Use the lull to improve your properties, lock in quality tenants, and prepare for the next cycle. Because in property, as in life, what goes down usually comes back up – just maybe not as quickly as we’d like.

Check out our listings to see what’s on offer. Still mulling the numbers? Call 0800 GOODWINS to discuss rental prices and likely yields.