A recent study claiming that student flats drag down neighbouring property values may have serious flaws in its methodology, following investigation by the Aotearoa Student Press Association (ASPA).
The survey by online property directory allrealestate.co.nz found that students were “neighbours from hell,” ranking only behind squatters as the least wanted over the fence.
The survey also claimed that students devalued neighbouring properties by up to 10%, costing the average homeowner $33,750 in lost profits. The survey’s findings were widely reported in the New Zealand Herald, Christchurch’s Press and in the Manawatu Standard.
However a call to allrealestate’s publicist, Giselle Pethard, found that in some instances the survey asked the 242 respondents to simply guess the answers.
The brief questionnaire asked, “Who do you think make the best and worst neighbours?”, and allowed respondents to select students, squatters, pet owners and others from a multiple-choice table, but did not ask respondents whether they had actually lived alongside them.
In another section the survey asked the subject, “What percentage do you believe living next door to a student flat could devalue a property?” Again, the questionnaire did not ask whether the subject has lived alongside students or whether their own property value has been affected.
Allrealestate.co.nz’s findings do not appear to have been correlated with Statistics New Zealand’s data or actual property values, but were published in a press release claiming that living next door to students is “bad for your wealth.”
“The financial price of living next door to a neighbour from hell could have dire consequences to not only lifestyle, but also a home’s value,” the press release said.
Pethard referred all further questions to the website owner Shaun Di Gregorio, but told ASPA reporters he was away in Melbourne on business. Neither Pethard nor Di Gregorio had commented further at the time of print.