Less than a 12 mo lease in Auckland?

[SueZ]

We arrived on a work visa last week (residency application still in the pipeline). We're house hunting in Auckland and have been offered a 2 places with a 12 month lease only. We've read that we should keep looking for a place that has a lesser lease time (http://www.enz.org/HouseRents.html). We are uncomfortable with a 12 month lease, would be happier with a 6 month. But I'm afraid we won't find a place, and we are living in an expensive apartment hotel in the CBD right now.

Is there a housing crunch right now? Should we keep looking?

Thx,
~Susan

[Kea]

There is a rental crunch at the moment. When we first arrived three years ago 6 months was fine but when we looked 18 months ago 12 months was much more common.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=10706841

You could try asking for 9 months. I also know a few people who have managed to break a lease. Normally if you find a replacement tenant landlords are fairly reasonable.

Good luck.

[Familyofmonkeys]

We've never had any problem during our 4+ years in NZ with finding 6 months leases, and we've lived in 7 different places to date. It might depend upon whereabouts in Auckland you are looking? We've mainly lived on the North Shore.

[Moomette]

When we were making enquiries a few months ago, we found that there were some rentals available for a 6 month minimum, though we ended up buying a house, so didn't need to worry about leases in the end.

You could try searching TradeMe and realestate.co.nz with short term in the search words.

I also visited an agency called Impressions Estate Agents (?) on Queen Street, who seemed to do short term (6months) rentals, though don't know what they're like otherwise as haven't actually used them.