Every apartment in a new building by developer Ockham in Auckland’s Point Chevalier will be rented rather than sold due to a slow property market.<\/p>\n
The chief executive of Ockham Residential’s Whet\u016b development William Deihl told RNZ’s Morning Report all 77 apartments will be leased.<\/p>\n
“The market is a lot slower than previous years.<\/p>\n
“We’ve been in a recessionary sort of environment for quite some time now, but it’s come to a head over the past couple of years.”<\/p>\n
Deihl explained that Ockham have developed build to rent buildings before, and it was on the table for the Whet\u016b block as it was being built.<\/p>\n
“It’s not something that’s uncommon for us.<\/p>\n
“It’s really dictated by the sales market and interest rates. The OCR has been quite sluggish with coming down and hopefully there’s a big drop to come.”<\/p>\n
Deihl discussed the benefits of a single landlord for the building as opposed to private landlords for each apartment.<\/p>\n
“When people are renting an apartment from a solo owner they don’t get the same security that you get when you have a single landlord over the space.<\/p>\n
“It’s something that we have done for a long time and we think it’s a good offering.”<\/p>\n
Deihl said build to rent buildings have been spoken about within the industry more in the past four years.<\/p>\n
While the Auckland apartment market is slow, Deihl said there were a number of great buildings out there, and there are more options than before, but mainly at the higher-end of the market.<\/p>\n
“There’s not a lot going on in this relatively affordable apartment market that we are doing.”<\/p>\n
Rents in the Whet\u016b building will range from $500-$580 a week for a studio, with two bedrooms going for $700 to around $780 a week.<\/p>\n
Deihl said Ockham remains optimistic about the future of the market, and with interest rates trending down, believes the market will be stimulated.<\/p>\n