Auckland's median yield: 3.1%. The story behind the number.

Auckland's median gross yield sat at 3.1% across Q1 2026 (Source: MBIE Rental Bond Data Q4 2025), the lowest in the country. That number is the punchline most commentators stop at.

It is also the wrong number to plan a portfolio around.

The TLA-level median absorbs every two-bedroom apartment in the central city alongside every five-bedroom villa in the inner east. Splitting the same dataset by bedroom count and property type produces a wide spread inside the single "Auckland" label — some sub-cuts run several percentage points above the headline.

The figures matter more than the headline. Every cut we publish links back to the underlying MBIE quarterly file with its asOf date.

The cashflow question is always asked at the address, not the region. The verdict tool runs the maths against whatever address the user types in, on the live datasets, with the source named on every line.

The takeaway: a regional median is a screening filter, not a portfolio plan.