Housing Minister Chris Bishop urges tenants to push for lower rents next year
Wednesday, 3 December 2025
Housing Minister Chris Bishop says tenants have more power than they have in decades ‒ and they should use it to ask for lower rents.
Bishop has been celebrating indicators of rents lowering or moderating on social media in recent months.
On Wednesday afternoon he said new rents on new tenancies were falling ‒ but this didn’t necessarily apply to existing tenancies.
“Having rents falling is actually a good thing. It is new rents ‒ the problem with the measurements is it is hard to measure existing rents, that stay flat - but new rents are falling,” Bishop said.
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Data does suggest either flat or falling rents in major centres for new tenancies. Nationwide new rents were down 0.4% year on year in September, with drops of 6.4% in Wellington and 0.6% in Auckland, according to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.
Officials said the lower rents were the result of falling net migration and increased housing stock from a high number of recent builds.
Stats NZ’s Rental Price Index, which measures existing rents, is paused.
TradeMe figures show the national median rent was just $610 in October ‒ the lowest since May of 2023.
Bishop said it was too soon to “declare victory” on housing, but there were positive indicators.
Many tenants, particularly students, sign new tenancies over the summer. Asked if these tenants should look to negotiate lower rents, Bishop said they should look into it.
“I'd encourage people to go and negotiate with their landlord. And if they think they can get lower rent, they should, because that'll be good for them, and … good for their own back pocket.”
It was difficult for people to get to grips with the idea that tenants could ask for lower rents, he said, as we had seen 20 years of rent rises and tenants having to fight to get rentals.
“Those days, at the moment, anyway, are over, and actually the power’s in the hands of tenants. That's quite unusual. My message to tenants is: use it.”
This follows comments earlier this year from Bishop that he wants house prices to fall or stay flat ‒ a view not shared by his boss, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who has called for “modest” house price growth.
Bishop was speaking following his appearance at Scrutiny Week, where he was pressed on whether he thought rough sleeping was on the rise, as most frontline organisations do.
Bishop and his fellow housing minister Tama Potaka refused to confirm that.