Renters suffered under escalating rents in 2019, while homeowners saw their housing costs dip as home loan interest rates dipped. Renters were around twice as likely to spend 40 per cent or more of their disposable incomes on housing costs, figures released by Statistics New Zealand showed. "While rents increased, and mortgage interest payments and property rates decreased, overall housing costs remained unchanged," income and poverty statistics manager Chris Pooch said. Nearly a third of households spent 30 percent or more of their total household income on housing costs. Just under 28 per cent of renting households spent 40 percent or more of their household income on rent and other housing costs, said Pooch.

Source: Stuff February 17, 2020 23:26 UTC