ROSEMARY ABBOTT | National
There’s more disappointment for Wellington flat hunters as the average rental price of a shoebox continues to rise. This comes as median house prices top $1m in the capital city.
Seventy five people turned up to the latest viewing, a shoebox formerly home to a pair of Hush Puppies leather sandals in Thorndon. Lucy Webb, 20, was hopeful about landing some prime cardboard real estate.
“I mean it’s a nice box, I was thinking I could make it work at $280 a week, but they were asking for $400. At least it didn’t have mould covering the ceiling (the cardboard lid) like the flats in Mt Victoria do.” said the Victoria University architecture student.
“But I would get a leak at some point and my landlord would likely ignore all requests to do anything about it, so it wasn’t worth the hassle. I’d rather my clothes just turn to mould in Mt Vic. Oh well, onto the next shoebox viewing!”
The Whakataki Times then tracked down shoebox landlord Craig Richmond to get his view on the rapidly burning out of control market.
“Yeah, so what? I set the prices and they‘re the ones willingly paying it. No wonder nothing changes. I can always rent them my daughter’s doll playhouse if they’re that desperate!” laughed Richmond, owner of six homes in the capital city.
Wellington housing market expert David Goldstein offered his insight into the crisis.
“What we’d be saying to people in Lucy’s situation is to just find yourself a nice muesli bar box to live in for now, and then maybe look to upsize to a shoebox when prices calm down”, he coolly explained to the Whakataki Times reporters.
“I think in a year’s time people will be looking to move into the more spacious dishwasher box, which is great for a couple with two stable incomes.”
By the time Webb had walked back to her car, which had now copped a parking fine, the rental price of a muesli bar box had risen to the price of the shoebox she just viewed, which had itself risen to the price of a box formerly home to a 52 inch plasma.
More to come.
Want to keep up with more of the news that’s important? Instagram works well for that! Check out the Whakataki Times on Insta.
