Is it really a renter’s market?
New Zealand’s property economy has created enormous wealth for homeowners and investors. But where does it leave the people paying the rent?
As rents fall in parts of New Zealand, some have claimed we’re finally in a “renter’s market”. But the bigger picture tells a different story.
From 2020 to 2025, rents rose by 25 percent. Low-income renters in New Zealand pay some of the highest rents in the world, and homelessness is at an all-time high.
Meanwhile, some of the modest gains for renters’ rights under the last Labour government have been wound back, with the coalition government restoring no-cause evictions, among other changes.
While a new common sense may be emerging around the need to move beyond housing speculation, where do renters fit into what comes next?
This week on Public Interest, Ollie Neas talks to Renters United president Luke Somervell about a new report on the reality of life for renters in New Zealand, the role renting plays in our housing economy, and what it would take to make renting a genuine long-term alternative to home ownership.
Watch the full conversation below and subscribe to Public Interest for more discussions making sense of politics and power in Aotearoa.
This episode was edited by Jeremy Leveridge. Research by Quinn McKay.
