November 2024 Monthly Update

We're almost through to Christmas now after what seemed like a quick year. 2024 has been challenging for many property owners with fixed term interest periods starting to expire onto much higher interest rates than the last few years. There are definite signs of improvement on the horizon though, we may be looking at another substantial cut in the November OCR meeting and anecdotally there's a lot more interest from investors in buying more properties compared with the last couple of years.

Property Sector News

• The Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill has returned from Select Committee with positive changes overall. 90 day no cause terminations will be reinstated, along with a host of changes around pets at rental properties. Keeping a pet without consent is now an unlawful act with a fine of $750, and there is more clarity around grounds for refusing to keep a pet.
• Upcoming OCR announcement is 27 November 2024. I'll keep you posted in our next monthly newsletter with my thoughts on how this should impact the market.
• After these RTA amendments, we're now looking at a period of political stability with no new legislation in the works. This is a contrast to the last few years so should be positive for landlords.

Dunedin Market Updates

The rental market has warmed up compared with earlier in the year, with more viewers and enquiries coming through. It's still a tenant's market overall though and there's a lot of stock available at the moment.

There are a lot of listings on TradeMe at the moment and a lot of these are student properties. The student rentals further out from university are staying on the market for a while and are coming under pricing pressure. This is partly a result of the fixed term changes implemented a few years ago by the previous government, which has meant that tenancies can no longer be ended by landlords to tie in with the academic year.  Viewers are also quite selective at the moment. Flaws with properties which would normally be overlooked are causing viewers to hold back from applying.  

On the bright side, the non-student market overall is steadier and we are renting out properties reasonably quickly. On average we are finding it takes four to five viewings to place a good tenant, which for us is around two weeks of viewings.

My advice for private landlords who are struggling with finding tenants or getting the right interest is to identify where on the tenant's renting journey the obstacles are and making changes to fix them. For example, having no viewers come through at all may mean the property looks unattractive online, or is highly priced compared with the competition, while having no applications despite lots of viewings could mean an issue with the property itself.

As always we're happy to assist you in any way and are always free for a call. Give us a call or text on 027 229 3537 if you'd like to have a chat.

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