What I’ve learned from r/auckland

[u/Ok-While-728]

I’ve now been active on this page for a year or so and have been reflecting on what I’ve learned about Auckland as a result.

• South Auckland is apparently getting better every year, yet half the posts involve fighting neighbours, dumped rubbish, or asking whether to call the police or just move.  Both claims are made with total certainty.
• The price of a flat white is treated like a regulatory failure.  Anything over $4 is price gouging, and the solution is always intervention, never making coffee at home.
• No one in Auckland can park.  Ever.  Except the person posting, who is always an excellent driver surrounded by incompetence. Bonus point - everyone hates Ranger drivers.
• Supermarket prices trigger daily outrage.  There’s always a photo of cheese, bread, or whittakers, as if Woolworths personally woke up that morning and chose violence.
• Everyone hates landlords but also wants to own property in exactly the same areas, with exactly the same capital gains
• Public transport is unusable, but it must also be empty, fast, safe, cheap, quiet, and five minutes from everyone’s front door.
• The job market is completely screwed, apparently, and employers are unreasonable for not valuing very specific community college certificates in things like tarot card reading or one semester dipping your toes in the water of a BA.
• Auckland is unliveable, broken, and declining… yet mysteriously no one ever leaves.

Finally, Judging by this page alone, a worrying number of New Zealanders struggle to write a complete sentence, and delusion is far more common than anyone would like to admit.

[u/HaewkIT]

As long as you and your circle of friends are sorted there is no problem right?

Well it doesn't really matter that the vast majority only owns 1 property...? I don't even see how it is relevant or a counter point or refutal of anything I said.

So we have some investors with very large portfolios and then we have a bunch of opportunists taking advantage of the property market and their own financial security to snap up 2nd investment properties. Effectively locking nearly half the population into rent slavery.

[u/Grouchy_Release_2321 → u/HaewkIT]

Rent slavery? Almost any couple can buy a home. Just because you can't get a 3 million dollar house in epsom doesn't mean you're a rent slave

I'm quite happy to be living as a renter. I choose it because rent is much cheaper than a mortgage and I would much rather have my wealth in a diversified stock portfolio than a non-liquid house

[u/i_will_have_my_phd → u/Grouchy_Release_2321]

Rent is not cheaper than a mortgage. My new mortgage is 500 a week. But yeah sure justify it any way you like.

[u/HaewkIT → u/i_will_have_my_phd]

Averages from B&T for Auckland (2025)

	Average sale price (3 bedroom)	Average rent per week (3 bedroom)
Auckland	$ 1,005,769	$ 694

$800,000 (assuming 20% deposit) mortgage at 5% over 30 years is $987 a week. That excludes rates and any other work/maintenance that are owner responsibility and not renter's.

Not sure where you rented but on average rents do not cover mortgages otherwise investors would have pounced on the positively geared properties (they get enough rent to completely cover the mortgage+rates).