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 Compostion

The rental market across Lower Hutt is strongly dominated by houses, with a handful of flats, but a very small number of apartments. Of the 384 properties recently available for rent, 82% have been houses (315), with 13% flats (48), and 5% apartments (21).

All the apartments have either been in Petone/Esplanade (15) or Hutt Central/Waterloo (6). The largest market for rental houses is Epuni/Avalon (72 properties), followed by Western Hills/Haywards (48), and Taita/Naenae (33). Eastern Bays has only had six houses for rent, representing the entire market there. Petone West/ Alicetown is another area where there’s only been houses for rent (12).

In terms of concentration of the various property types, the figure has been 100% in other areas such as Moerai/Waiwhetu and Stokes Valley. In Wainuiomata, that figure has been 83%, with 17% flats (no apartments).

House Size, By Bedroom Count

Looking at houses (315 properties), 50% recently on the rental market across Lower Hutt have had three bedrooms, and another 35% with two. Only 11% have had four bedrooms, 4% with one, and none with five bedrooms. It’s common across most parts of NZ for the rental house stock to be centred on the two and three-bedroom categories.

The only one-bedroom houses have been in Epuni/Avalon and Petone West/ Alicetown, while Western Hills/Haywards has had the most four-bedroom properties. In the two-bedroom category, the largest markets have recently been Epuni/Avalon and Western Hills/ Haywards, although the concentration figures have been higher in Eastern Bays and Petone West/Alicetown.

For three-bedroom houses recently on the rental market in Lower Hutt, the most have been in Epuni/Avalon (33), followed by Wainuiomata and Western Hills/Haywards (each with 21). The highest concentrations of three-bedroom properties recently available for rent have been in Petone/Esplanade (75%) and Wainuiomata (70%).

Rent And Yield

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

Median weekly rents for threebedroom houses across Lower Hutt range from $600 in Stokes Valley, Wainuiomata, and Taita/Naenae, up to $695 in Petone/ Esplanade (and $690 in Epuni/Avalon). The range for median values on these is much wider, from about $800,000 or less in Stokes Valley and Wainuiomata, up to around $1.3 million plus in Hutt Central/ Waterloo and Eastern Bays.

The result is that gross rental yields on three-bedroom houses also have a fairly wide variation, from less than 3% in Hutt Central/Waterloo up to 4% in Wainuiomata. Stokes Valley sits at 3.9%, while Taita/Naenae is also a little ahead of the rest at 3.7%. Rental growth has been strong for three-bedroom houses, ranging from 7% in Western Hills/Haywards and Hutt Central/Waterloo, to double digits in Moera/Waiwhetu, Taita/Naenae, and Epuni/Avalon, and 20% in Wainuiomata.