New Zealand's Smallest Apartment

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Apartment Specialists Podcast No: 162

Summary:

Have you heard of the smallest apartment in New Zealand? Who buys a 9m2 apartment? Learn why the council has allowed the construction of these apartments and why it's built in the university district. Get all the facts from this podcast.

New Zealand’s Smallest Apartment

After selling and being in over 1000 apartments it’s not every day you come across an apartment that is smaller than a car park. Yes only 9m2. This is New Zealand’s smallest apartment!

My first thought was ‘How can someone live here and how can they build apartments so small?’

Yet they do and in the university district, the council permits bedrooms to be as small as yes 9m2.

The apartment is at 33 mount street in Auckland City and the complex is called the Mount Terraces.

The apartment has a single bed, a small kitchen type area and that’s it.

It caters for the student market where the normal facilities one requires is shared; and due to it being literally right next to the Auckland University of Technology, it’s all about location.

So who lives in these apartments?

Students who want their own privacy, without the normal rental cost of $350 and upwards for a one bedroom or studio.

Most of the tenants are generally international……and when you look to overseas, say to Hong Kong where over 100,000 apartments exist that are around 4m2, it’s not as surprising.

So who buys them?

Investors. It’s all about the numbers as they are quite extraordinary.

The outgoings are so low and the rent consistently is $240 per week.

If you take off your ‘Would I live here hat” it gets people who are focused on return very excited as it is towards the 9% net mark.

Paid off in almost 11 years from doing nothing.

So there you have it. New Zealand’s smallest apartment.

If you need help with your Auckland apartment purchase, flick me an email at [email protected] or call +6421 424 892 and we will happily help you or connect you with the right people.

TRANSCRIPTION:

New Zealand's smallest apartment. Andrew Murray here from the Apartment Specialists.

Now after selling and being in almost a thousand apartments it's not every day you come across one that's more than a car park. And this one right in front of you is only nine square meters so it's actually smaller than a car park. A normal car park is around about 12 to 13 square meters.

As you can see this one's pretty tiny. Now there's not actually much there. Obviously, there's pretty much a single bed, kind of like a little study, TV on the wall, and a kind of kitchen type area. When I first looked at this apartment I obviously thought, "Well, who would live in this and how can it actually be allowed to be built?"

Now first of all it's mainly students who live in it where they're not wanting to be living with others. And you see the rent for this apartment is $240 a week, but the alternative is more like around about 350 upwards for one bedroom or studio. So, it's generally international students that live in this apartment. It's in 33 Mount Street and it's called the Mount Terraces as a complex, in the Auckland CBC.

It's pretty small, but the thing is what's interesting is that they get bought very reasonably. Most people don't even need to see the apartment, because it's all about the numbers. I mean, the rent's 240. The outgoings are next to nothing, and the return is approaching nine percent net.

If you take your hat off regarding, "Would I live in this apartment?", it's pretty attractive financially, because if you obviously pay with cash, then it's paid itself off in almost ten years. So yeah, it's very interesting. You can see here the complex, 33 Mount Street, where you've got a lot of these nine square metre bedrooms or apartments. And you've fot AUT literally right behind it.

Now, it has shared facilities, because you're probably thinking where do they go to the toilet? How do they do their washing? All that kind of thing, so it sort of runs on that kind of. You can and they're coin operated - its student living. But what's interesting is when you actually look it on a global scale, because most people sort of say, "Well that's inhuman, how can you live in such a small space?" But there's actually huge demand for it and most of them being international students.

If you go, this is actually pictures from Hong Kong, where there apartments and this is actually 3.7 meters squared, and you've got a whole family in here. So, you've got your bunk beds, they've got there little cooker here and it's absolutely fascinating when you look at and think about New Zealand is so far behind in apartment living. I'm not saying that all apartments like this should be built. But space is a premium everywhere in the world, and it's starting to become in New Zealand.

So there you have it, New Zealand's smallest apartment which I'll just go back to you for you. It's nine square meters.

Andrew Murray, Apartment Specialists. Cheers!

If you need help with your Auckland apartment purchase, flick me an email at [email protected] or call +6421 424 892 and we will happily help you or connect you with the right people.