Difference between MBIE and Trade Me rental figures
This information explains the differences between the two sources of rental data: what they refer to, and how they should be interpreted.
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and Trade Me data
MBIE publishes rental price data which is used to calculate market rent. We use this data for the online market rent tool. Its data is also used for regional housing reports and other analytical publications.
The website Trade Me Property (“Trade Me”) produces median rent statistics as advertised on Trade Me Property.
The two data sources measure different things
Both series of rental data are valid, but they measure different things. Neither of these series measures rent paid by all tenants. Rather, they only capture the weekly rent for new rentals on the market.
Tenancy bond data
Tenancy bond data measures the average rent of actual bonds lodged by private landlords with MBIE. This series presents a measure of the actual price of newly acquired rentals. Under the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA), every landlord that receives a bond is required to lodge it with MBIE, unless it’s a tenancy specifically excluded under the RTA (e.g. holiday homes). There is no distinction between furnished and unfurnished properties in bond data which can influence the price of rentals.
Trade Me listing data
Trade Me publishes the median asking price of rentals as advertised on Trade Me Property. This is a record of the price of rentals listed on New Zealand’s biggest property website. Their Rental Price Index presents a picture of price changes of advertised rentals for people who rely on publically advertised rentals. Trade Me’s data refers to properties ‘asking’ price rather than the agreed price, meaning Trade Me data includes rentals with asking rents that have not yet been rented out.
Tenancy bond data is publically available in these places
Rental bond open data
MBIE provides monthly data on the number of bonds lodged, active bonds, mean bonds, geometric mean, synthetic upper and lower quartile rents for New Zealand as well as a Territorial Authority level. This is data is available on the Tenancy Services website and the data goes back to January 1993.
Market rent tool
This data is updated monthly and contains bond information from the previous six months.
