‘I still want to live’: Why one Auckland retiree sold her home and chose renting

Friday, 1 May 2026

At 73, Glenda Hurst made a decision many New Zealanders still struggle to imagine in retirement: she sold her home and became a renter.

Not because she had to. Because she wanted to.

The Aucklander wanted freedom. More cash to live on. The ability to travel while she still could. Less stress about maintenance, rates and repairs.

“I still want to do things,” she says. “If I bought another property, I wouldn’t be able to travel because I wouldn’t have the money to do it. I want to be able to enjoy what I’ve got, while I can.”

So instead of downsizing into another home or entering a retirement village, Hurst moved into Reiputa, a 297-apartment Mt Wellington complex built by Simplicity Living that offers 10-year rental leases.

For her, one detail mattered most: certainty.

“I’m not keen on having a landlord sell a property out from underneath me,” she says.

“So it’s perfect. There’s lots of lovely young people around too and it all feels safe.”

Behind Hurst’s personal choice sits a much bigger shift. A growing number of New Zealanders are reaching retirement age without owning a home at all.

Census data shows 29% of people aged 55 to 59 do not own the home they live in. Among people aged 65 to 69, nearly a quarter are renters.

Simplicity chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub says those numbers are only heading one way.

“Between 360,000 and 440,000 New Zealanders aged 65-plus will be renting by 2050,” he says.

“So these long-term, secure rentals are going to become more important.”

As of late April, New Zealand has 2223 completed Build to Rent homes.That number has nearly doubled in three years.

There are also 1146 under construction and 4328 in the development pipeline, according to Property Council New Zealand - through entities like Kiwi Property, New Ground Capital and New Ground Living, and Ockham Residential and Simplicity Living.

Auckland has the majority of units, with smaller numbers in places like Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Wellington, and Otago.

The risk behind retirement renting

Financial adviser James Blair says the biggest risk for older renters is simple: rents don’t stand still.

“Rent increases can erode capital a lot faster than people expect,” he says.

A retiree relying mainly on NZ Super can quickly find themselves squeezed if rents rise faster than inflation.

That makes long-term housing stability increasingly important as people age.

“The older you get, the harder moving becomes. Security and stability are vital as you get older, especially if you want to avoid disruption in your 70s or 80s.”

Unlike the traditional rental market, Build to Rent developments like Reiputa offer leases lasting up to 10 years. Residents can leave with 56 days notice, but landlords cannot force tenants out during the lease period unless conditions are breached.

Blair says planning is vital if you don’t own a home.

“If you’re not paying off a mortgage, you need to make an active choice to build investments elsewhere,” he says.

That could mean increasing KiwiSaver contributions or investing into managed funds or shares.

Selling the family home isn’t always the answer

Blair says many people overestimate how much better off they’ll actually be after selling the family home.

“People assume downsizing automatically improves retirement,” he says.

“But once we work out what people actually want from life, many realise they don’t necessarily need to sell. Do you want to spend $60,000 a year and own, or $80,000 and sell?”

Selling a large family home and buying a smaller apartment may free up less money than expected — particularly in expensive urban centres where newer apartments often cost far more per square metre.

Blair calls it the “square metre trap”.

Moving to the regions can also create problems later.

While cheaper housing and a slower pace of life appeal to many retirees, Blair says some older New Zealanders eventually find themselves cut off from major hospitals, specialists and support networks.

By their late 70s or 80s, Blair says some try to move back to larger cities — only to discover they can no longer afford to re-enter the market.

Retirement villages, reverse mortgages — and loneliness

Blair is particularly cautious about reverse mortgages, describing them as something people should avoid in most situations.

“I have an issue with people going into more debt as they get older when they have no income to service that debt,” he says.

Because interest compounds over time, reverse mortgages can rapidly eat away at remaining equity.

Blair says they should usually only be used as a short-term last resort.

Retirement villages also come with trade-offs.

While entry costs and ongoing fees can significantly reduce the value of someone’s estate, Blair says the social side of village life is often underestimated.

“Loneliness has a cost too,” he says.

“The community aspect can give people a much richer life than living isolated at home.”

This information is of a general nature and is not intended as personalised financial advice.