Market Composition

The rental market in Nelson/Marlborough/Tasman is made up of mainly houses with a few flats and limited apartments. Houses are the most significant property type, accounting for at least 66% of properties in each rental market. Richmond/Wakefield/Brightwater/Mapua (91%) and Motueka/Rural Tasman (90%) have the highest percentages of houses in their respective rental markets.

Rental flats are more common in the Nelson and Marlborough regions of Blenheim Central (30%), Nelson Central/Nelson North (29%) and Stoke/Nayland/Tahunanui (21%) all having at least 20% of the market made up of flats.

Rental apartments are very sparse with Port Hills/Tahuna Hills (7%) and Nelson Central/Nelson North (5%) the only areas with bonds lodged in the last three months.

Three-bedroom houses are the most prevalent in the Nelson/Marlborough/Tasman rental market, as they are across most of the country. Number of bedrooms in houses is relatively consistent across the regions, with only slight differences in each of the areas.

Blenheim Outer/Renwick is made up of 85% three-bedroom houses, while Sounds/Rural Marlborough has the lowest percentage, but it is still over half (54%) of all rental houses. Sounds/Rural Marlborough makes up most of the difference with two-bedroom houses accounting for 32% of the rental houses, while every area has a similar percentage of four-bedroom houses – from 13% in Blenheim Central to 19% in Stoke/ Nayland/Tahunanui.

Rent And Yield

Median weekly rent across the region varies between the areas by $100. Sounds/Rural Marlborough has the lowest median weekly rent at $300, while Richmond/Wakefield/Brightwater/Mapua has a median rent of $400 a week.

The median value of three bedroom houses across the region varies from $306,000 in Blenheim Central to $454,200 in Richmond/ Wakefield/Brightwater/Mapua. This lower median value in Blenheim Central, coupled with a medium-level median rent of $340 provides the greatest gross yield in the region, while the Sounds/Rural Marlborough relative expensiveness of a three-bedroom house for a lower median rent of $300 gives a gross yield less than 4%. Each of the other areas offers a gross yield in the range of 4.3%-4.8%.

Median rent has been relatively flat across the region with four areas having no change and another three with less than 2% growth. Blenheim Central is the only area to experience growth in median rent – up 6.3% over the last year.

Kilbirnie/Lyall Bay and, to a lesser extent, Mt Cook have also seen a drop in median rent over the last year, while both Brooklyn and neighbouring Vogeltown/Berhampore/ Newtown have remained flat. Further south in Kingston/Happy Valley rental growth of 5.1% has been solid.