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 Napier and Hastings is dominated by houses. Of the 501 properties recently available for rent, 429 were houses (86%), with 63 flats (12%), and only nine apartments (2%).

The largest sub-market for rental houses lately has been Napier (138), followed by Hastings/Clive (114), and Taradale/Awatoto (75). In terms of concentration of houses amongst the recently available rental properties, those markets are exceeded by Flaxmere, Havelock North, and Rural Hastings, where the figures are 100%.

Indeed, the largest areas for flats are Hastings/Clive (30) and Napier (27), while the only area with apartments recently available for rent has been Napier (nine).

House Size, By Bedroom Count

Looking at houses (429 properties), almost two-thirds (63% or 270) recently on the rental market across Napier and Hastings have had three bedrooms, with another 23% in the two-bedroom bracket (99), and 13% with four bedrooms (54). It’s common across the country for rental houses to be towards the smaller end of the spectrum.

In the three-bedroom house category, the largest markets have again been Napier and Hastings/Clive, followed by Taradale/Awatoto. In terms of concentration of three-bedroom properties amongst all of the houses recently available on the rental market, Hastings/Clive is also relatively high at 66% – but surpassed by Flaxmere (82%) and Rural Hastings (71%). Those latter two areas haven’t had any four-bedroom houses recently for rent, with Napier again the largest market (18).

Turning to two-bedroom houses, Napier, Hastings/Clive and Taradale/Awatoto have had the most properties recently on the rental market, however only Taradale/Awatoto stays near the top in terms of concentration (28%). That list is topped by Rural Hastings (29%), with Havelock North at 25%. Flaxmere’s concentration of two-bedroom houses is a little lower, at 18%.

Rent And Yield

There is quite a wide variation for median weekly rents for three-bedroom houses across Napier and Hastings, starting at $460 for Flaxmere, up to $590 in Taradale/Awatoto. However, the range for median values is even wider, from $504,300 in Flaxmere up to $1.02 million in Havelock North. Gross rental yields for three-bedroom houses also differ, ranging from less than 3% in Rural Hastings (and 3.0% in Havelock North), up to 4.7% in Flaxmere. The rest of the areas are around the 3.5% mark. These yields have come down over time, but are still relatively attractive compared to many other parts of the country.

Rental growth for three-bedroom houses across Napier and Hastings has been strong in recent times. Havelock North has been the lowest, at 7.3% in the past 12 months – but that’s still a solid figure. The rest have been in double digits, right up to 18% in Taradale/Awatoto. We also have to acknowledge last year’s rental freeze, which will have artificially pushed up growth rates this year.