The 17 landlords who own more than 1000 Christchurch rentals

Saturday, 22 November 2025

A small number of low-profile investors control a striking number of properties. CHARLIE MITCHELL and LIZ MCDONALD examine the portfolios of the city’s most prolific landlords, revealed in a new analysis of property records.

Liz Harris doesn’t like talking about herself. But after nearly 40 years of buying and holding onto properties, she has become something unusual in New Zealand: a landlord to roughly 700 tenants.

Harris is the most prolific landlord in Christchurch, with interests in around 170 rentals. Alongside her portfolio of large apartment blocks and townhouses, she owns a lodging house, commercial holdings in New Brighton, prime central city land, and a vast Fendalton property.

“I’ve been at it a long time, and I just tried not to sell anything over the years,” she says.

“It’s been a lifetime of hard work.”

Harris is not alone. An analysis of more than 180,000 property records by The Press reveals that just 17 landlords in Christchurch have ownership interests in more than 1000 rental units between them, a concentration of housing stock that has largely gone under the radar.

While there are hundreds of individuals or entities owning 10 or more properties, a small group owns more than 30, and just a handful have more than 50.

Their portfolios vary wildly, ranging from clusters of inner-city apartments to standalone homes in particular suburbs. Several are professionally involved in real estate or property management. Some hold onto properties for decades, while others cycle through periods of selling and buying.

Brenda Coster and Anne Pegler have done the former. After more than three decades as landlords, they now own roughly 120 properties, including a 20-unit apartment block in central Christchurch, a 12-unit complex in Kaiapoi, a motel, and dozens of smaller flats and apartments across the city.

At 68, Coster continues to work at least eight hours a day, seven days a week, even after recently hiring a property manager.

“People talk about wealthy landlords — they should talk to me,” she says. “I love it, but really I’d be better off with a job working 40 hours a week. I do horrendous hours. But I’m not whingeing. It’s a lifestyle.”

She is proud of every property she owns and doesn’t rent out anything she wouldn’t live in herself.

Other major investors include Bruce Lindsay, owner of Harcourts Orbit Property Management, who has ownership interests in around 60 residential units and a dozen commercial properties.

Property adviser and valuer Hamish Collins also holds interests, through various companies, in around 60 residential units. Investor Glenn Colquhoun has a portfolio of roughly 50, spread across the South Island.

Long-time landlord Michael Ruscoe owns more than 60 units, including a 10-unit apartment block on Fitzgerald Ave bought this year for about $3m. Dimin An has interests in around 50 units, among them a block of 16 townhouses in Phillipstown.

Together, the city’s top 10 landlords have ownership interests in more than 700 properties.

A market remade

Analysts, including from the Treasury, have argued that large-scale landlords benefited from rising house prices, often edging first-home buyers out of the market.

Supporters say that they expand the supply of affordable rentals and help put downward pressure on rents.

Either way, the economics of being a landlord has changed. High interest rates, rising costs, and a sluggish property market have reshaped the business. Yet the data shows Christchurch still has no shortage of large-scale landlords, many of them active in specific neighbourhoods.

In 2017, an Aranui property was marketed as a “solid and affordable first home”. The winning bidder, however, already owned nine houses on the street including the one next door. Soon afterwards, he bought the house directly opposite, bringing his portfolio to 24 properties, nearly all in Aranui.

A more recent Southshore listing billed as “attractive to first-home buyers and families” also ended up with an investor.

The buyer was Holly Jones, a well-known real estate agent who has quietly built a portfolio of about 45 properties — some commercial — many of them managed through her family’s firm, Ray White New Brighton. Most are concentrated in the city’s east.

Many landlords have found opportunities in the eastern suburbs. After the earthquakes, damaged but inexpensive homes — often sold “as is, where is” — reshaped the market.

Lee Bennett, then a handyman at a central-city hotel, moved quickly. He began buying damaged properties at pace, eventually assembling a portfolio of about 55 residential units, making him the largest private residential landlord in Christchurch’s east.

“I wouldn’t recommend getting into it unless you’re very brave,” he says. “I’ve had house fires, P labs… you name it, I’ve had it.”

His business has drawn scrutiny. After some of his tenants raised concerns about poor conditions, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment launched a years-long investigation. In 2023, Bennett paid $163,000 in compensation and exemplary damages. He maintains many of the problems stemmed from his former property manager, Ray White New Brighton, which also paid compensation.

More recently, Bennett has turned to buying homes with large sections and building new dwellings at the rear — a model he says works for extended families.

In the past few months alone, he has purchased four homes sold by Kāinga Ora, the state housing agency. Although he focuses on cheaper properties, he insists he does not target homes suited to first-home buyers and has never sold a property he has built.

Being a full-time landlord, he says, is far from glamorous, particularly in the current property climate.

“I believe there are better ways to earn a living. Unfortunately, I’m kind of stuck in it. It’s something I can’t walk away from.”

He feels the public perception is unfairly harsh. “We’re always trashed by the media. It’s unfortunate because we’re not the villains — we’re trying to provide housing.”

Another major investor in the east, Alan Trott, holds more than 30 of his roughly 50 properties in the area. Like Bennett, he expanded after the earthquakes by buying damaged homes. Earlier this year, one of his companies paid $13,000 after an MBIE investigation found vulnerable migrant workers living in unsafe conditions at a former yoga retreat in Bishopdale.

Real estate agent Grant Craig is also a significant landlord in the eastern suburbs, with around 25 properties there, largely concentrated in Linwood.

The economics of scale

Recent regulatory changes have made the economics of landlording less lucrative. The Healthy Homes Standards, phased in since 2019, have added significant compliance costs, while high interest rates and a flat property market have narrowed margins.

Against that backdrop, some large-scale landlords say expansion no longer makes sense.

One told The Press they had no plans to buy more properties, pointing to rising costs for rates, insurance, and maintenance. “It’s not a hugely profitable exercise these days,” they said. “It’s not as though residential landlords are making this huge amount of money. It just doesn’t work like that.”

Even the most experienced operators say the bills accumulate quickly. Coster, who is hands-on and fixes many issues herself, notes that the post-quake switch to chlorinated water forced her to replace “70-odd water cylinders at $2000 a pop.”

“It's not like it was 20 years ago,” she says. “There are so many rules and regulations now — it’s over the top.

“The government needs to get more input from the people who are on the ground. If they get it wrong, it’s not just the landlords affected, it’s the tenants.”

Yet for some, the appeal of the work hasn’t waned.

Harris, the city’s most prolific landlord, says the motivation is simple. “I like housing people,” she says. “There are many people who don’t have a lot, and I have many lower socio-economic tenants. I enjoy housing people that might otherwise find it hard to get a place.”

Note: Property records do not state how many rental units sit behind each title, so the exact size of these portfolios can’t be pinned down. For that reason, the figures in this analysis are best read as informed estimates rather than precise counts of individual dwellings.

The analysis excluded dedicated property developers, which own large amounts of property but typically intend to sell them.

The list*

Liz Harris: 175 units

Brenda Coster and Anne Pegler: 120 units

Bruce Lindsay: 60 units

Hamish Collins: 60 units

Lee Bennett: 60 units

Michael Ruscoe: 60 units

Glen Colquhoun: 50 units

Stephen Pawson: 50 units

Rebecca Freher and Matthew Ede: 50 units

Wendy Weerts: 50 units

Dimin An: 50 units

Alan Trott: 45 units

Holly Jones: 45 units

Glenn Jordan: 40 units

Grant Craig: 40 units

Frederick Costeloe: 35 units

Christine and Gordon Bennett: 35 units

*Figures are estimates and derived from property records current as of November 2025