How Often Can You Increase Rent in NZ? The 12-Month Rule

I own four apartments at 135 Hobson St: a three-bedroom, two one-bedrooms with car parks, and a one-bedroom on its own. Every year around the same time I sit down and work out whether I'm going to put the rent up on any of them, and every year I get asked the same question by other landlords: how often am I actually allowed to do this? There's a lot of half-remembered rules floating around, so here is the plain version, with the bits that trip people up.

The Short Answer: Once Every 12 Months

In New Zealand you can increase the rent once every 12 months. That's it. The rule in the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 (section 24) is specific about the two dates that matter:

• Rent can't be increased within 12 months of the date the tenancy started.
• Once you've done an increase, rent can't go up again within 12 months of the date that last increase took effect.

So the clock runs from when the increase becomes payable, not from when you sent the letter or when you signed the tenancy. If I put the rent on my three-bedroom up on 1 March, I can't lift it again until at least 1 March the following year. Easy to say, easy to get wrong if you're not tracking the dates.

This used to be every 180 days years ago, then it moved to once every 12 months, and it has stayed there. The Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2024, which brought in a pile of changes from 30 January 2025, did not touch this. The 12-month rule and the notice period below are the same as they were.

The 60-Day Notice (Not 90)

Here's the one I correct most often. To increase the rent on a residential tenancy you must give at least 60 days' written notice. The notice has to state the new rent amount and the date it becomes payable, and that date has to be at least 60 days after you give the notice. For a boarding house tenancy it's 28 days instead of 60.

A lot of landlords are convinced it's 90 days. It isn't. The 90 days people are thinking of is the no-cause notice period for ending a periodic tenancy, which the 2024 Amendment brought back from 30 January 2025. That's a completely different thing. Ending a tenancy and raising the rent are two separate processes with two separate notice periods. Mix them up and you either delay your own increase by a month for no reason, or worse, you serve a notice that's too short and it doesn't take effect.

So the two numbers to keep straight:

• Rent increase notice: 60 days (28 for a boarding house).
• Ending a periodic tenancy, no cause: 90 days.

Fixed-Term Tenancies Are Different

During a fixed-term tenancy you can only increase the rent if the tenancy agreement specifically allows it. No clause, no increase until the fixed term ends or the tenancy rolls onto a periodic one. And even when the agreement does allow a mid-term increase, the same two rules still apply: not within 12 months, and at least 60 days' written notice. Two of my one-bedrooms started as fixed terms, and I made sure the agreements spelled out how and when rent could move before I signed anything.

Can a Tenant Push Back?

The increase doesn't have to land exactly on "market rent". You set the figure. But a tenant can apply to the Tenancy Tribunal to challenge an increase if it's substantially above market rent for similar properties in the area. That word "substantially" matters: a reasonable bump in line with the market is fine, a wild jump is asking for a challenge.

This is why I keep evidence before I send anything. A few comparable listings for similar apartments in the central city, plus the MBIE market-rent data for the area, and I've got a file that shows the new figure is in the right range. I've never had a tenant take me to the Tribunal over rent, but if one did I'd want to walk in with the numbers, not a shrug.

Just Because You Can Increase Doesn't Mean You Should

Being allowed to raise the rent every 12 months does not mean I do. If I have a good tenant who pays on time and looks after the place, I will often leave the rent exactly where it is. The maths is not complicated. A $10 to $20 a week increase is $500 to $1000 over a year. One month of vacancy on an apartment, plus the advertising, the viewings, the credit checks and the gamble of a tenant I do not know yet, wipes that out and then some. A reliable tenant who stays is worth more to me than a small bump that nudges them to start looking around.

So I treat the once-a-year increase as something I am allowed to do, not something I have to do. When my costs have actually moved, rates, insurance, body corporate levies, I will adjust. When they have not, or when I have a tenant I want to keep, holding the rent steady is usually the better business decision. Vacancy is the expensive thing, not a flat rent.

How I Keep Track

The annoying part of all this is the date-keeping across four tenancies. Each one has its own tenancy start date, its own last-increase date, and therefore its own 12-month window and its own 60-day notice deadline. Do that in your head and you'll either miss a window or jump the gun.

I use RentManager for this, and the reason it works is that it doesn't store rent as a single number you overwrite. It keeps a dated rent schedule: each rent amount has an effective date, so when I lift the three-bedroom from one figure to another, the old figure stays on the record with its dates. That history is exactly what you want if a question ever comes up later. It also means the software knows when each tenancy's 12 months is up and can nudge me when the 60-day notice needs to go out, so I'm not relying on a note in my phone.

The Takeaway

Once every 12 months, measured from the tenancy start or the last increase taking effect. At least 60 days' written notice in writing, stating the amount and the date. It's 60, not 90. During a fixed term, only if the agreement allows it. Keep your market evidence on file in case a tenant challenges. Get those few things right and a rent increase is one of the more straightforward parts of being a landlord in New Zealand.

This is general information, not legal advice. For the exact wording, section 24 of the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 and the Tenancy Services website at tenancy.govt.nz are the places to check.