International students securing rentals without seeing them

Source: Radio New Zealand

University student Piki Wang has inspected 20 apartments in central Auckland since January, carefully checking living spaces for signs of dampness, pouring through recent utility bills to get a rough idea of monthly costs and assessing building security.

But Wang is not looking for an apartment for herself – she has been hired to inspect the property by fellow students located thousands of kilometres away in China.

Armed with smartphone gimbals and WeChat video calls, the 23-year-old works as a “proxy viewer” – part of a growing, pay-per-view microeconomy on social media platform RedNote.

Remote property inspectors such as Wang are helping to plug a housing gap that many international tertiary students are increasingly facing.

With university accommodation oversubscribed, many incoming students are pushed into a private rental market that is difficult to navigate from abroad.

Students from China face additional hurdles due to the “great firewall of China”, which makes it difficult – if not impossible – to do proper due diligence when searching for a private apartment.

It’s an issue that Yixin Fan, a first-year student at the University of Auckland, encountered firsthand.

“The main problem isn’t knowing what kind of house to look for, but how to find one in the first place,” Fan said.

International students typically receive official offers to attend courses and subsequent visas only a few weeks before the semester starts, which leaves many searching for private accommodation in a scramble.

Fan, 18, attempted to find accommodation through Trade Me but kept coming up against requests from prospective landlords for local credit histories, references and mandatory in-person viewings.

Locked out of inspections, Fan hired a proxy viewer – a decision he says ultimately spared him from renting a poorly ventilated converted storage space.

The barriers Fan faced in his search have expanded a remote viewer’s role beyond simple inspections.

While they are primarily hired to assess properties, Wang said offshore students often relied on her for basic guidance on how renting works in New Zealand, from application processes to setting up utilities and so forth after arrival.

University accommodation shortage

University accommodation in Auckland is in high demand, with capacity limited each year.

Auckland University of Technology manages around 900 beds.

The University of Auckland manages about 4500 beds, but international students only make up around 8 percent of residents in its first-year halls.

As demand outstrips supply, many students are locked out.

Anby Zhou, a committee member of the Chinese Postgraduate Society, said some students in China had set alarms so they could apply the moment applications opened.

However, she said, many still missed out.

Both universities state they provide housing support through websites, orientation programmes and agency referrals.

While the University of Auckland recommends its own halls for a supported transition, Auckland University of Technology supplies a non-endorsed list of off-campus apartments.

However, student advocates say these largely static resources offer limited practical guidance for offshore searches.

Left without a dedicated, interactive channel to navigate the private rental market, many new arrivals either absorb the cost of transitional hotels or scour social media platforms for alternative options.

Such alternative options can easily be found on RedNote.

The social media platform’s open system allows unlicensed brokers and tenants looking to sublet a portion of their lease – many operating from overseas IP addresses – to flood the platform with listings and charge opaque fees.

Agents in New Zealand offering remote viewing services are also using the platform to find potential clients.

Fan says he was contacted by seven or eight agents during his search for accommodation, facing rental and service fees of around 780 yuan (approximately $175) per match.

Wang paid a similar 800-yuan fee to an offshore agent when securing her first Auckland apartment.

Dispute resolution

From time to time, incoming students who have secured private accommodation from abroad before travelling to New Zealand find an issue with the property upon arrival.

Zhou recalled cases in which offshore students signed leases based on misleading photos, only to find the properties unlivable upon arrival.

Excessive noise from neighbours and poor security are also common complaints.

In such disputes, students who have typically paid a bond to secure the property can find themselves in a bind.

The Real Estate Authority confirmed it had limited jurisdiction over domestic property managers and virtually no authority over unlicensed offshore brokers.

Students in private rental accommodation were instead advised to contact the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Tenancy Services, although anyone who had signed a sub-lease arrangement also faced additional vulnerabilities.

Paul Coggan, manager of tenancy practice and stewardship at MBIE, said provisions of the Residential Tenancies Act could apply to subleases, even in cases where agreements were informal or bonds paid through overseas apps such as WeChat.

However, he said, there was a catch.

If the person who had signed the original tenancy agreement lived in the same property, those who have signed the sublease were typically classified as a “flatmate” – meaning the protections of the Residential Tenancies Act might not apply.

And even where tenancy regulations do apply, recovering money from landlords, property managers or fellow leaseholders is often difficult.

Landlords are legally required to lodge all bonds with Tenancy Services within 23 working days, but this step is frequently ignored by unlicensed brokers.

If a student arrives to find conditions uninhabitable, Tenancy Services says there is “no immediate way for a tenant to terminate their fixed-term tenancy”.

The only legal option was to lodge a complaint with the Tenancy Tribunal.

However, many international students are unable to wait weeks for a Tenancy Tribunal hearing, leaving them with no option but to vacate the property, forfeiting their bond entirely.

Universities acknowledge the existence of this parallel rental market, although their guidance remains focused on official options.

Auckland University of Technology said it was aware of incoming students requesting inspections by proxy and social media platforms to find accommodation.

However, the university maintained its advice, encouraging students to “directly interact and connect with official accommodation services and property management agencies”.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand