The average weekly rental cost has risen 84.3 percent since the year ended June 2007, Stats NZ said today.
This increased faster than household disposable income (equivalised and not adjusted for inflation) which increased 67.6 percent over the same period. Households that had mortgages for the same period would have experienced, on average, a 42.5 percent increase.
| Year | Rent |
| 2007 | 0 |
| 2008 | 6 |
| 2009 | 15 |
| 2010 | 13 |
| 2011 | 22 |
| 2012 | 27 |
| 2013 | 28 |
| 2014 | 36 |
| 2015 | 41 |
| 2016 | 44 |
| 2017 | 59 |
| 2018 | 60 |
| 2019 | 68 |
| 2020 | 75 |
| 2021 | 84 |
| Year | Mortgage |
| 2007 | 0 |
| 2008 | 20 |
| 2009 | 18 |
| 2010 | 10 |
| 2011 | 17 |
| 2012 | 12 |
| 2013 | 11 |
| 2014 | 22 |
| 2015 | 25 |
| 2016 | 41 |
| 2017 | 37 |
| 2018 | 40 |
| 2019 | 44 |
| 2020 | 41 |
| 2021 | 42 |
| Year | Annual average equivalised disposable income |
| 2007 | 0 |
| 2008 | 6 |
| 2009 | 12 |
| 2010 | 14 |
| 2011 | 16 |
| 2012 | 21 |
| 2013 | 28 |
| 2014 | 32 |
| 2015 | 37 |
| 2016 | 39 |
| 2017 | 41 |
| 2018 | 50 |
| 2019 | 54 |
| 2020 | 59 |
| 2021 | 68 |
Mortgage payments have been relatively unchanged since year ended June 2016 (up 0.9 percent). This is due to lowering interest rates and principal expenditure increasing, through the purchase of additional mortgages or borrowing more due to rising house prices. Lowering interest rate payments offset increasing principal payments, resulting in a flat trend.
Households, on average, paid more for renting, rates, and building-related insurance but no more for mortgages in the year ended June 2021. This continues the trend of increasing total housing costs since the year ended June 2007.
In the year to June 2021, households on average spent $18,174 annually on housing costs, an increase of 2.5 percent from the year ended June 2020. The average annual equivalised disposable income of households also rose, up 5.1 percent to $50,164.
Stats NZ equivalises income to remove the effect of different household sizes and compositions on estimates. This makes it possible to compare income across households of different sizes and compositions.
How we measure child poverty has more detail on how equivalisation works.
The average weekly cost of renting in the year ended June 2021 was $392.30, up 5.4 percent from year ended June 2020. Average weekly rates and building-related insurance also increased, up 5.3 percent to $61.20, and 5.7 percent to $39.70 respectively.
"The rises were felt strongly by Māori, as about half the Māori population are renting, compared to just over a third of all people," manager of income and poverty insights Chris Pooch said.
Annual housing affordability is worse for renters compared with homeowners
In the year ended June 2021, 17.1 percent of New Zealand households spent more than 40 percent of their disposable income (not equivalised) on housing costs. Renters are over-represented in these households with over 1 in 4 renters compared to 1 in 9 homeowners spending more than 40 percent of their disposable income on housing costs.
In terms of income adequacy, 51.2 percent of renters perceive their income as 'Not enough' or 'Only just enough' to meet everyday necessities, while only 13.7 percent perceive their income as 'More than enough'.
| Housing costs as a percentage of disposable income | Household owns/partly owns dwelling and makes mortgage payments |
| Less than 25% | 44 |
| More than 25% | 56 |
| More than 30% | 41 |
| More than 40% | 21 |
| 42 | 46 |
|---|---|
| 54 | 58 |
| 39 | 43 |
| 19 | 23 |
| Housing costs as a percentage of disposable income | Household owns/partly owns dwelling and does not make mortgage payments |
| Less than 25% | 93 |
| More than 25% | 7 |
| More than 30% | 5 |
| More than 40% | 2 |
| 92 | 94 |
|---|---|
| 6 | 8 |
| 4 | 6 |
| 2 | 3 |
| Housing costs as a percentage of disposable income | Household does not own dwelling and makes rental payments |
| Less than 25% | 41 |
| More than 25% | 59 |
| More than 30% | 47 |
| More than 40% | 30 |
| 39 | 43 |
|---|---|
| 57 | 61 |
| 45 | 49 |
| 28 | 31 |
| Housing costs as a percentage of disposable income | Total households |
| Less than 25% | 61 |
| More than 25% | 39 |
| More than 30% | 30 |
| More than 40% | 17 |
| 60 | 62 |
|---|---|
| 38 | 40 |
| 29 | 31 |
| 16 | 18 |
Poor housing quality affects a large proportion of renters
Housing quality refers to aspects of housing that often influence cost or are made more difficult due to the cost of housing. The Household Economic Survey (HES) collects information on several housing quality measures including dampness and mould, the ability to adequately keep warm in winter, and crowding.
"Cold and damp homes affect a large proportion of renters in New Zealand," Mr Pooch said.
Households making rent payments in the year ended June 2021 accounted for half of households with a minor or major problem with dampness or mould.
Almost a third (32.5 percent) of rental households had at least a minor problem with dampness and mould.
Similarly, 31.7 percent of rental households had at least a minor problem keeping adequately warm in winter and 8.9 percent were crowded or severely crowded.
The Healthy Homes Guarantee Act 2017 enables the government to make healthy homes standards with which landlords must comply. The standards on insulation have been captured in this data, whereas the standards on heating and ventilation came into force following collection of the HES for the year ended June 2021.
| Housing quality measure | Household owns/partly owns dwelling and makes mortgage payments |
| Minor or major problem with damp or mould | 18 |
| Minor or major problem with keeping adequately warm in winter | 14 |
| Crowded or severely crowded households | 3 |
| 16 | 20 |
|---|---|
| 13 | 16 |
| 3 | 4 |
| Housing quality measure | Household owns/partly owns dwelling and does not make mortgage payments |
| Minor or major problem with damp or mould | 14 |
| Minor or major problem with keeping adequately warm in winter | 11 |
| Crowded or severely crowded households | 1 |
| 12 | 15 |
|---|---|
| 10 | 13 |
| 1 | 2 |
| Housing quality measure | Household does not own dwelling and makes rent payments |
| Minor or major problem with damp or mould | 33 |
| Minor or major problem with keeping adequately warm in winter | 32 |
| Crowded or severely crowded households | 9 |
| 31 | 34 |
|---|---|
| 30 | 33 |
| 8 | 10 |
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Household Economic Survey year ended June 2021
As with the HES for the year ended June 2020, the pandemic has impacted Stats NZ's ability to conduct face-to-face interviews in respondent's homes and no other means of interviewing were available. Therefore, interviewing was not conducted evenly over the whole year. Consequently, the sample size was reduced to just over to 16,000 households from the planned 20,000 households.
This is consistent with what was achieved in HES for the year ended June 2020 when interviewing ceased in March 2020. The reduced sample size means margins of error on the statistics are higher than designed for. Stats NZ analysed the data to check for any impact of this change in interview pattern, but no discernible impact was noted, and are therefore confident the data is fit for purpose.
Stats NZ will publish more data from the HES on 3 March 2022, in Household net worth statistics: Year ended June 2021.
Stats NZ has revised previously published estimates of household income and housing cost measures for the year ended June 2020 using the most recently available administrative data from the Integrated Data Infrastructure and to use updated population estimates.
