APARTMENTS BOUNCE BACK
It’s been more than a year since the country’s borders closed and overseas students swarmed back to their own countries in the wake of Covid-19. And the effect on Auckland’s CBD apartment market has been swift and dramatic.
Almost overnight the hallmarks of a sector falling into a crevasse were evident – a glut of empty apartments, rents falling by up to half and sale prices tumbling.
From stock of about 40,000 CBD apartments, 1,274 lay empty within one week. Many had been abandoned, without notice, by overseas students and foreign working visa holders fleeing home.
“It was a huge shock to the market,” says Scott Dunn, City Sales broker and marketing manager.
The flow on from the substantial number of empty apartments was that rents tumbled. Investors had no option but to drop their rents to attract new tenants. Many new tenants were able to secure an apartment for $100-$150 a week less than the going rent before Covid-19 lockdowns
