Porirua still home to NZ’s highest weekly rent

The most expensive place to rent in New Zealand is still Porirua, with landlords asking a median $700 a week in December, Trade Me said yesterday. That was well above the national median rent of $560 a week, and $50 more a week than they had to pay in November. The most popular rental in the country in December was a three-bedroom house in the Wellington suburb of Newtown for $700 a week, which received 125 inquiries in two days. The consistently high prices through to the end of last year saw weekly rents $40 higher than last December. ‘‘Seeing such sizeable rent increases persistently throughout the last quarter of 2021 will be a tough pill to swallow for renters around the country, who will no doubt be hoping for a cooler rental market in 2022,’’ Trade Me Property sales director Gavin Lloyd said. The Auckland region’s median rent remained $600 a week for the third month in a row.