Unprecedented demand for Hamilton rental properties as OCR drops again

While some have been reporting a sluggish start to the year for property, and painting a particularly gloomy outlook for investors, Jason Waugh, General Manager at Lodge City Rentals is not buying it.

“We’re simply not seeing anything like what’s happening in other parts of New Zealand. We’ve seen a big uptick in investor interest after the summer break, beyond the seasonal norm, and that momentum is building week on week.   With a further OCR cut announced on 19 February, it’s set to be a big year in Hamilton indeed"

Managing Director of Lodge Real Estate, Jeremy O’Rourke says there are a few reasons Hamilton is bucking the trend.

“Quite simply, we’re growing faster and while the country is taking a hit on some big metrics overall, Hamilton is increasing its share.”

While tertiary institutions struggle with recruitment across the board, more students are choosing Waikato University, with its new health offerings proving to be a major drawcard - their nursing programme is thriving, and they’ve recently added midwifery and pharmacology with a full medical school also on the horizon.

Hamilton also remains a migrant hot spot. Despite net migration being down on pre-Covid levels, every year more want to call Hamilton home. 

Jeremy says, “I personally love what that says about Hamilton – it’s a welcoming, inclusive place where you can enjoy a really great lifestyle.”

The crucial detail that eagle-eyed investors see, is that these two, growing population groups in the city – students and migrants - are predominantly renters.    However, more older people are also cashing up and entering the rental market with the Retirement Commission predicting 40% of retirees will be renting by 2048.

Jason says, “We manage 4050 properties here in Hamilton and only 47 of those are currently vacant with 99% of all tenants up to date with their rent. We’re also seeing a very high level of compliance and general care for properties.  Tenants know the rental market is competitive so they're not taking any chances.  The conditions for investors in Hamilton couldn’t be better and we can’t see that changing.”

While some commentators have noted changes to residential tenancy laws introduced on 30 January 2025 may be deterring property investors, Jason disagrees.

“In my opinion, they serve only to strengthen the relationship between landlord and tenant.   We’ve been helping our landlords to work toward compliance in many areas for quite some time, so it’s largely business-as-usual for most of our clients.”

Others are citing landlords are also under pressure to ensure they’re compliant with Healthy Homes Guidelines, with fines coming into play from July this year.

Again, Jason disagrees with the sentiment and is glad the guidelines will finally have some ‘teeth.’   “We’ve been living and breathing Healthy Homes for years and our landlords have done the hard yards to get their properties up to scratch.  Property Management firms have played a big role in communicating the expectations and here at Lodge Rentals we’ve taken it seriously, so non-compliance simply isn’t an issue for our landlords.”

With construction kicking off at the long-awaited Te Awa Lakes next month in Hamilton’s North-West, you can feel the energy in the air at Lodge’s main offices in downtown Hamilton.

While it meant an abrupt end to the holidays for Jeremy and Jason, a surge of listings in late January prompted the company to move from one to two auctions per week. Jeremy says, “It’s awesome to see the market coming alive again like this.”

He hopes Hamiltonians remember this broader context when they receive their council revaluations in April, with the Hamilton market still 14.1% behind the 2021 peak.  He says, “I hope Hamiltonians don’t take them too seriously and remember we’re bouncing back faster than nearly every other part of New Zealand.”