Compared to the last 3 years, the Wanaka rental market appears to be more evenly balanced between demand and supply of rental homes. Tenants are still price sensitive, and unwilling to consider homes they perceive as being over-priced.

As rents increase so we are seeing more couples having a friend or two living with them to make rent more affordable. It is fairly common now to see a couple with a child sharing their home with another couple.

Our most popular recent rental was a 4 bedroom older home in Rob Roy Lane (great location) advertised at $1050 per week. We could have rented that a few times over! Homes near the schools are always popular. However we have noticed tenants are more cautious in committing, often looking at several homes before finally signing a tenancy agreement when they are running out of options.

Median time to rent a home has consistently been between 3 and 4 weeks for the last 12 months.

A number of owners have decided against a rent increase this year, choosing to keep good tenants and continuity instead. On average rent increases have been just over 4% in the last few months.