This tells me that my property’s rent was likely too low. It was renting in the bottom 25% of properties. But, since the property was only renovated 7 years ago, I expect it would rent around the average.
So, looking at the Tenancy Services data can be more useful than simply looking at if rents have gone up or down over the last year. Because you might find that your property was under-rented from the beginning.
Just keep in mind that Tenancy Services only breaks down suburbs by property type and bedrooms when there is enough data. So, this granular data is often available for larger cities, but not tiny towns.
Step #3: Compare your property with similar ones currently available for rent
This is the final and most important step.
You’ve got to compare your property with similar ones available for rent on Trade Me and realestate.co.nz.
I’m not talking about a cursory glance. Instead, you should take the same structured approach that a valuer does when looking at your property.
Go to Trade Me and look at a handful of similar properties. You then assess if your property is better or worse. If your property is better, then the market rent will be higher than those properties.
If your property is worse, then the market rent for your property will be lower than those properties you see online.
Here’s the exact process I used for my property.
At the time, there were 29 x 2-bed apartments for rent in Christchurch. But I only picked 6 of them to analyse for my research table.
I considered what was on offer, the photos, and the area. Then I ranked them in terms of whether they were superior (better) or inferior (worse) to my property.
