That was if they could even afford what was on offer. Mackelry was studying beauty therapy full-time on a student loan and her partner lived with epilepsy and was unable to work.
They were not alone in their struggle. The average weekly rent in Tauranga five years ago was $474, it has now skyrocketed to $670 – an increase of 41 percent.
People were feeling it in their pockets. One resident who did not want to be interviewed told RNZ it felt impossible to get a rental after searching for two years. They were living in a boat with their daughter.
Another local said they had found a rental but had also looked for a few years before they found it.
“Yeah, I rent. Me and my kids, it’s pretty pricey – that’s pretty normal though today… we’re justpretty much just getting by, just making it.”
From February 2019 to February 2023, there had been a 180 percent increase of people on the transitional housing register in Tauranga.
Tolley admitted the city had growing pains.
“Housing for us is a huge issue and the reality is we’re not coping with that,” she said.
Tolley said the council had tried.
“But still, we have the highest house prices to income in the country. We’re only consenting [to] half the number of houses that we need to be, so we are continually falling behind.
“We’re about 5500 houses short now, which means it keeps the price up.”
The council has been talking to the Government about faster processing and consenting for new houses and changes were on the way. The number of rentals listed on Trade Me was about 280 for a city of 160,000 people.
That was a slight increase since December last year but Trade Me sales director Gavin Lloyd said that was still not meeting demand, with about 4000 people moving to the city every year.
“So, while some of these numbers look not too bad on a year-on-year basis, gee, they’ve been coming from a… low base and we just know that supply is just not satisfying particularly that net migration number that we’re seeing at the moment, those record highs.”
Demand for one- and two-bedroom homes was also on the rise, according to Trade Me.
Age Concern general manager Tanya Smith said pensioners could be behind that demand but many were unable to afford or find the right place.
“We know there’s a growing number of older people that are becoming homeless. They’re ending up in a camping ground or they’re moving in with their family members, there are not enough rental properties out there now.”
In February, a local Facebook page was created called “Accommodation options for over 65’s”. It already has more than 250 members.
The idea was to provide a flatting option for seniors in Tauranga, those without access to the internet could fill out an application form at the community centre.
But Smith said they should not have to resort to this and there simply needed to be more housing for the ageing population.
“The Government’s known that this is coming and it’s just been at a standstill and so it’s time to move and it was meant to move yesterday, not tomorrow.”
RNZ