Local property managers told The Ensign the demand for rentals had been increasingly competitive and they were receiving more than 10 applicants per property.
‘‘We had one where we had 15 applicants this last week, for one property,’’ MRL Property Management owner Graham Maxwell said.
‘‘There is a lot of demand and not a lot of stock,’’ he said.
Harcourts real estate agent and property manager Sharon Wenlock said she was getting about 10 applicants for each home.
When asked why there was such demand, the property managers said the new wind farm development had brought a lot of new contractors to the area, who were taking up the rental space.
‘‘And, of course, they’re paying big money for rent,’’ Ms Wenlock said.
Bayleys leader of property management Catherine Wilson also said the development had put ‘‘extra pressure’’ on the rental market, but her team had no recent requests from contractors for rentals.
‘‘We haven’t had any new inquiry [from contractors] ... they only confirmed that they were taking the houses that they already had for longer,’’ she said.
‘‘So they haven’t taken any more properties out of the rental pool, as far as I’m aware.’’
Mercury Energy executive general manager of generation development, Matt Tolcher, said the company had about 100 employees working on the Kaiwera Downs wind farm development.
He said the utility tried to enlist local contractors to work on the plant and about 60%-70% of those working on the development were locals.
Mr Tolcher also said the company had had no difficulty finding accommodation for their staff since the project started last winter.
Mr Maxwell said the influx of contractors when Mataura Valley Milk was built had similarly put ‘‘a lot of pressure’’ on the rental market.
The lucrative offering of Airbnb had made landlords move their rentals from the market to the accommodation provider, Ms Wilson said.
The latest data on the Government’s Tenancy Services website showed that the median rent for a three-bedroom home in Gore was $478.
Ms Wenlock said rent prices had ‘‘shot up’’ in recent years.
An average three-bedroom house cost about $300 five years ago.
When Salvation Army community ministries co-ordinator Michelle Chirnside, who deals with the more in-need, lower income side of Gore, was asked about the renting problem, she said: ‘‘there’s nothing around’’.
Ms Chirnside said the organisation had no transitional or other housing initiatives in Gore and engaged its Invercargill branch for services such as financial mentoring.
Salvation Army Invercargill Major Murray Sanson said the whole of Southland was ‘‘just desperate’’ with a ‘‘large’’ level of need and homelessness.
The lower socioeconomic people his organisation dealt with could not afford the higher rents or bonds that had become the norm nationwide.
He also said owning pets meant his disadvantaged clients had even more difficulty securing a lease.
‘‘[Pets are] like a security blanket ... that they can talk to and to give them companionship,’’ he said.
On the landlord side, Mr Maxwell said rising rates and the previous government’s ‘‘bright-line test’’ had also discouraged investors from buying homes to rent out as passive income.
The bright-line test was Labour’s version of a capital gains tax, which taxes those who buy and sell residential properties for a profit.
In ‘‘Tackling Rental Affordability in Communities’’, a report released by The Salvation Army in January, principal policy analyst Mr Paul Barber said rental housing was a reality for a ‘‘growing proportion’’ of the New Zealand population.
Mr Barber said about 32% of the country were rental households, compared to about one-quarter a generation ago, in the 1990s.
These households, Mr Barber said, had, on average, lower incomes, a higher number of children, were younger and of a ‘‘different ethnic mix’’.
Asked for his advice to renters on how to be the stand-out applicant on a property, Mr Maxwell said having a ‘‘good record’’ with other property managers was a good place to start.
‘‘And by being responsible, that they pay rent on time, that they respect the house they live in, and so forth,’’ Mr Maxwell said.
