The Data

Rental data is sourced from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment based on rental bonds lodged. This data is supplied to us grouped into geographic areas based on statistical area units used by Statistics NZ for the census and as a result do not always match well with common usage suburb names.

The rental data for each area is matched to property price information from our database to determine property prices and therefore yield. The yield is calculated as the annualised rental income divided by the median property value calculated using our E-Valuer.

Market Composition

The rental market across Central Christchurch is skewed towards houses, with a reasonable number of apartments and flats. Of the 1,071 properties recently available for rent, 62% have been houses (669), with 21% apartments (225), 17% flats (177).

The largest market for rental houses is Riccarton (135 properties), with Linwood/ Phillipstown (96) in second. Areas such as Addington and Christchurch Central/ Hagley have fewer houses. For flats, other important areas have included Merivale/ St Albans West, Sydenham/Waltham and Avon Loop/Christchurch East. There is a reasonable spread of apartments across most parts of Central Christchurch, but none recently for rent in Fendalton/ Strowan/Bryndwr, Ilam/Westburn or Sockburn/Upper Riccarton. Notable areas in terms of the concentration of property types recently for rent include houses in Ilam/Westburn (100% of market in that area) and apartments in Christchurch Central/Hagley (69.6%).

House Size, By Bedroom Count

Looking at houses (669 properties), 38% on the rental market have had two bedrooms, with another 35% in the threebedroom bracket. Only 14% have four bedrooms, 8% with five, and 6% with one. Almost all of the one-bedroom houses have been in Avon Loop/Christchurch East, with Sockburn/Upper Riccarton and Riccarton home to most of the fivebedroom houses recently for rent.

Significant areas for two-bedroom rental houses, in terms of the raw numbers, include Linwood/Phillipstown, Riccarton, Sydenham/Waltham, and Avon Loop/Christchurch East. In those last two areas, the concentration of houses recently for rent accounted for by twobedroom properties has topped 50%. In the three-bedroom category, key markets are Riccarton and Linwood/ Phillipstown, although there are higher concentration percentages for this category in areas such as Fendalton/ Strowan/Bryndwr and Addington.

Rent And Yield

By matching average value to rent we can look at gross yield for threebedroom houses in each area.

Median weekly rents for threebedroom houses across Central Christchurch range from around the $450-$470 mark in Sockburn/Upper Riccarton, Riccarton, Addington, Sydenham/Waltham, and Linwood/ Phillipstown, up to about $550 or above elsewhere.

The range for median values is much wider, from less than $500,000 in Linwood/Phillipstown up to more than $1.3 million in Merivale/St Albans West, and about $1.2 million in Fendalton/ Strowan/Bryndwr.

Gross rental yields for three-bedroom houses also vary from 2.1% in Merivale/ St Albans West, up to 4.8% in Linwood/ Phillipstown.

Yields of more than 4% in that part of Christchurch, as well as Addington, and Sydenham/Waltham may look attractive to investors. Rental growth for threebedroom houses has been pretty strong across many parts of Central Christchurch lately.