First published on 
By Laine Priestley, Otago Daily Times
Salvation Army Dunedin community ministries manager Captain Logan Bathurst. Photo: Otago Daily Times / Tracie Barret
Climbing rents have brought housing insecurity in Dunedin close to a "tipping point", a charity leader says.
Salvation Army Dunedin community ministries manager Captain Logan Bathurst made the statement after statistics released by Cotality showed rents had climbed by almost 9 percent in the year to May.
Bathurst said the numbers tracked with the struggles he was seeing.
He said more people in Dunedin had been priced out of rentals over the past 12 months.
"I'd say it is getting worse. I think we're close to tipping point ... I don't think much is being done about it, to be honest.
"It's lots of talk, but no real action at the moment."
He believed people elsewhere in New Zealand were still struggling, despite the numbers showing rental prices were going down. Housing prices were still taking up a large portion of people's income, he said.
"The amount ... is still huge - yes, around the country it has come down, but it is still a significant portion.
"Energy costs and power costs have gone up as well over the last 12 months, so even if there is a saving in terms of accommodation, there's still higher costs of just cost of life and living."
Cotality's report came from an update from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, which showed national median rents in the three months to May were down 0.3 percent from the year before.
However, Dunedin was an outlier with an 8.7 percent rise.
Cotality chief economist Kelvin Davidson said there was a sharp rise in rents post-Covid as borders reopened and net migration spiked.
At the same time, rental supply was tighter, and investor activity dipped due to rising mortgage rates and tax rule changes.
"This affordability ceiling is now acting as a natural brake on further rent increases."
This story was first published by the Otago Daily Times.
