Why isn’t my property renting? – A Newtown success story

One of the questions we’ve been hearing more than ever this winter is:

“Why isn’t my property renting?”

Earlier this month, our Business Development Manager, Lisa, received a call from Angela, who was struggling to find a tenant for her investment property in Newtown, Wellington.

She’d never had any difficulty renting the property before, but this time was different. The property had been sitting vacant for several weeks, enquiries had almost dried up, and the financial pressure was beginning to build.

“I’ve never had this problem before,” she said. “Where have all the tenants gone?”

The property wasn’t the problem

Before suggesting any changes, Lisa took a look at Angela’s Trade Me listing.

The property itself presented well. The photos were good, and the advert had been thoughtfully put together.

What stood out was that there wasn’t one obvious issue.

Instead, there were several small factors that, together, were making the property less competitive than similar rentals in the Newtown market.

Small changes that made a big difference

After reviewing the listing, Lisa recommended a number of changes.

The weekly rent needed a slight adjustment to better reflect current market conditions and compete with similar properties nearby.

Some of the property’s strongest features, including the garage, storage space and double glazing, deserved much more prominence in the advert rather than being buried further down the listing.

A couple of the photos also weren’t showing the bedrooms at their best. Replacing them with images that better demonstrated the size of the rooms would help prospective tenants picture themselves living there.

Lisa also recommended adding a mid-week evening viewing. Many tenants find it much easier to attend inspections on their way home from work than at the weekend.

Finally, because the listing had been live for several weeks, she suggested creating a fresh Trade Me listing with the photos reordered. Older listings can sometimes be overlooked by tenants or create the impression that something is wrong with the property.

None of these changes were particularly dramatic on their own.

Together, however, they created a much stronger marketing campaign.

The outcome

A week later, Angela emailed Lisa with some great news.

Enquiries had increased almost immediately, and she’d secured a lovely new tenant.

Did the slight rent adjustment help?

Absolutely.

But it wasn’t the whole story.

The combination of better pricing, stronger presentation, improved photography, smarter viewing times and refreshing the listing all contributed to a much better result.

Vacancy isn’t always about price

The Wellington rental market has changed significantly over the past couple of years.

With more rental properties available and tenants having greater choice, the way a property is marketed matters more than ever.

If your property isn’t attracting enquiries, it’s easy to assume the only answer is to reduce the rent.

Sometimes that’s part of the solution.

But often it’s a combination of pricing, presentation, photography, listing strategy and viewing availability that determines whether a property stands out from the competition.

Small improvements across each of these areas can make a surprisingly big difference.

If your rental property has been sitting vacant longer than expected, our team would be happy to review your current marketing strategy and identify practical changes that could help attract more enquiries and reduce vacancy.