Calculator · For landlords
What would a repaint have to return to pay for itself?
Not "how much rent will a repaint add" — nobody can honestly tell you that, and no New Zealand dataset measures it. This runs the question the other way round: given a real median rent for your suburb and a cost you supply, what rent change and what vacancy saving would be needed, and how long is the payback. You can then judge whether those numbers are realistic for your property.
The calculator
Pick a suburb, then state what you actually expect
Median weekly rent is real: MBIE (Tenancy Services) rental bond data, Q1 2026. The rent change and the vacancy saving are yours to choose — they are hypotheses, not data, and the calculator labels them that way.
The honest caveat
A repaint does not guarantee a rent increase
It is worth being blunt about this, because the rest of the internet is not. This tool exists to make the assumption visible, not to validate it.
There is no New Zealand dataset that measures what a repaint does to rent. MBIE’s bond data records what tenancies actually rented for; it does not record why. Nobody publishes a controlled comparison of the same property before and after presentation work, and the confounders would swamp it if they did — the market moves quarter to quarter, listings compete against whatever else is available that week, and condition is only one of several things a tenant is weighing.
What can be said with more confidence, and it is the useful part:
- Vacancy is measurable and immediate. An empty week costs a full week’s rent, every time. If a property is showing badly and sitting unlet, work that shortens the vacancy pays back in a way you can verify against your own letting history.
- Deferred exterior paint compounds. On timber, paint is weather protection. Leave it long enough and the repaint becomes a repaint plus carpentry, and that curve is steep. Nationally, 40% of houses were found to have deteriorating exterior paintwork.
- Tenant retention has a value you can compute. A tenant who stays another two years is worth more than a small rent rise, once you count the vacancy, the letting cost and the turnover work.
- A rent increase is a market outcome, not a renovation output. You can improve your odds of achieving the top of your suburb’s range. You cannot manufacture a premium above it.
So the sensible way to read the result below is as a threshold. If the break-even rent rise sits comfortably inside the gap between your current rent and the upper quartile for the suburb, the case is plausible. If it sits above the upper quartile, the repaint has to justify itself on protection, vacancy and retention instead — which it very often can.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Auckland median weekly rent | $622 |
| Bonds in the period | 16,641 |
| Suburbs with a published median | 246 of 246 |
| Period | Q1 2026 |
A suburb median covers all bedroom counts and dwelling types in that suburb, so read it alongside the bond count — a median over a handful of bonds is noisy.
MBIE (Tenancy Services) rental bond data · Q1 2026
Worked by hand
The same calculation, on paper
A rental at $650 a week. A $9,000 repaint. You expect $15 a week more, and you think it saves one week of vacancy. Horizon: three years.
- New weekly rent: $650 + $15 = $665
- Vacancy saving: 1 week × $665 = $665, once
- Net cost to recover: $9,000 − $665 = $8,335
- Payback: $8,335 ÷ $15 per week = 556 weeks, or about 10.7 years
- To pay for itself in 156 weeks you would need $8,335 ÷ 156 = $53.43 a week, which is 8.2% of the current rent
That is a deliberately deflating result, and it is the correct one for those inputs. Change the vacancy saving to three weeks and the picture shifts a long way, which tells you where the real argument lives.
How to pressure-test your own inputs
- Rent change. Compare it against the gap between your rent and your suburb’s upper quartile. If the break-even figure exceeds that gap, it is not achievable through condition alone.
- Vacancy weeks. Use your actual letting history, not an optimistic one. Days on market last time, not what you hope for next time.
- Cost. From a quote, and check its product allowance with the quantity calculator. If the litres look thin, the price is cheap for a reason.
- Horizon. Exterior paint on a well-prepared system lasts years, not weeks, so a three- to ten-year horizon is fair for an exterior. An interior refresh between tenancies is a shorter horizon and a different argument.
One more thing worth checking before you commit: if the property is in a Special Character Area and you are changing the appearance of a street-facing elevation, that is a consent question. And the substrate decides the specification — start there.
Questions people actually ask
Will repainting let me raise the rent?
Maybe, and this calculator deliberately refuses to assume it. There is no New Zealand dataset that measures the rent effect of a repaint — MBIE publishes what tenancies actually rent for, not what caused those rents — so any tool that tells you a repaint adds a specific dollar figure has invented it. What rent a property achieves is set by the market at the time it is listed, by its bedroom count, its condition overall, its location and how it compares with what else is available that week. A tired interior can certainly cost you rent and cost you tenants. That is not the same as a fresh one adding a fixed premium.
So what is this calculator actually for?
Reversing the question. Instead of telling you what a repaint returns, it tells you what a repaint would have to return to pay for itself, and how long that takes. That is a number you can test against your own knowledge of the property and against what comparable listings are achieving. If the break-even rent rise is $12 a week, the case is easy. If it is $95 a week, you have your answer without needing anyone’s opinion.
Where does the median rent come from?
MBIE (Tenancy Services) rental bond data, for Q1 2026. It is derived from bonds actually lodged with Tenancy Services, so it reflects real tenancies rather than asking prices. Two things to keep in mind: it is a median across all dwelling types and bedroom counts in that suburb, so a three-bedroom house and a one-bedroom unit are in the same figure; and suburbs with a small number of bonds have a noisy median. The bond count is shown next to the figure so you can judge that for yourself.
How should I think about the vacancy saving?
It is usually the more defensible half of the case. An empty week costs a full week’s rent and it is a real, immediate, measurable loss — where a rent increase is a hypothesis. If a property is genuinely showing poorly and sitting on the market, presentation work that shortens the vacancy pays for itself in a way that is easy to verify. Be conservative about how many weeks you claim, though: if the property let in three days last time, the honest number of weeks avoided is zero.
Should I include the repaint as a tax deduction?
This calculator deliberately ignores tax, because the treatment depends on facts we cannot see: whether the work is repairs and maintenance or a capital improvement, whether it was done at the time of acquisition, how the property is owned and what your position is. The distinction between deductible maintenance and capitalised improvement is a real one with real consequences, and it is a question for your accountant and for Inland Revenue’s guidance — not for a web page, and certainly not for a painter.
Is there a case for repainting that is not about rent at all?
Yes, and it is often the stronger one. Exterior paint is the building’s weather protection: on timber it is what stops water getting into the boards, and deferring it turns a repaint into a repaint plus carpentry. Nationally, 40% of houses were found to have deteriorating exterior paintwork, and letting a rental get to that point is the expensive option even if the rent never moves. There is also the healthy homes and general condition obligation on the landlord, which is about the state of the property rather than its rent.
Why is there no cost estimate for the repaint itself?
Because there is no official New Zealand dataset for what a trade costs, so we would be inventing it. You have to put in your own figure — ideally from a real quote. The full explanation of that gap is here, and the quantity calculator at least lets you check whether the product allowance in a quote is plausible.
Next
Size the job, then check the product allowance in a quote. When the job is bigger than paint — a kitchen or a bathroom between tenancies, or a reclad — Renovate Auckland covers that side.