How many, if any, private rental homes are currently available in the lower quartile of the rental market, and is it greater or less than the 29% of social housing households that he claims currently have sufficient income to manage private rental costs in the lower quartile of the rental market?

Answer

As of 20 July 2026, there were 2,569 rentals listed on TradeMe that were below the lower quartile rent MBIE published for May 2026 (latest available). This will not include any rentals listed on other sites or those available but not on any listing site. This figure is a point in time view of the number of rentals available. Tenancy services data shows that around 13-14,000 new tenancies are started each month nationally with roughly 3,500 being lower quartile rentals. The analysis which showed that 29% of social housing households (approximately 26,000) appear to be able to afford a private lower quartile rental used data from 2023 so is from a different period than the current TradeMe data. This analysis compared household incomes with the price of a lower quartile rental of the size each household needed in the Territorial Authority they lived in. The analysis did not show the other reasons households may need Social Housing, nor did it show the full picture of affordability for each household which would also capture household wealth, assets and their actual rent payments. Many of the households competing for those lower quartile rentals will be left with lower after housing incomes than many of the households in social housing. This is not fair and one of the reasons we are making changes to make the system fairer.