Rākaia is in Canterbury, New Zealand, with population 1,578.
This page still helps with local context, but the evidence stack is too thin for a clean suburb-level call. Use nearby alternatives or compare mode before turning it into a shortlist decision.
The page is thin enough that nearby alternatives should be checked before shortlisting.
Monthly repayment by fixed term
A territorial-authority estimate: the Ashburton District median sale price on a 20% deposit and 30-year loan, against the TA median household income implied by HUD's income-to-buy ratio, at RBNZ new-mortgage rates. A market-wide guide, not a Rākaia-specific or borrower-specific figure.
QV House Price Index for the Ashburton District territorial authority (monthly, Jan 2007 = 1000). A valuation-based index of price movement over time — distinct from the actual median sale price above.
Figures are for the Ashburton District territorial authority (as at 2026-03). New Zealand has no free suburb-level sale-price series, so these are TA-wide medians from HUD Local Housing Statistics (LINZ District Valuation Roll + Stats NZ) — a market backdrop for Rākaia, not a Rākaia-specific sale price.
At / near its highest median rent on record
Rent trend is derived from MBIE tenancy-bond medians and excludes suburbs with too few bonds to be reliable.
Median individual income. NZ has no suburb-level household-income or sale-price data, so this is a personal-income benchmark, not a household-affordability measure. Distribution covers people aged 15+ with stated income; counts are randomly rounded to base 3.
8.5% of private dwellings were unoccupied on 2023 census night (holiday homes, empty rentals, and vacant stock).
16% damp (-1pp vs 2018) and 10% with visible mould larger than A4 (-0pp vs 2018).
Investor-specific data (gearing, investor concentration) is not published for NZ suburbs — the tenure trend above is the available investor signal.
Stats NZ subnational projection (2023 base, medium series) for Ashburton District — the finest official projection grain available; suburb-level projections do not exist.
Earthquake exposure is the distance from Rākaia's centre to the nearest mapped active fault (GNS Science NZ Active Faults Database) — an area estimate, not a site-specific seismic assessment. NZ's full ground-shaking model (NSHM) is not available as a queryable map layer.
Active Airbnb listings point-mapped to this suburb from Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0). Occupancy and revenue are estimates from Inside Airbnb's San Francisco model (review-rate proxy, minimum-stay assumption, occupancy capped at 70%) — they are gross, indicative, and not a guarantee of returns. Short-stay letting is subject to state and local regulation.
Top 62% most liveable of 1,902New Zealand suburbs.
Bar = this suburb's percentile · tick = typical (median) peer
Suburb-level access-density index (not an address-level walk-time score), normalised within New Zealand suburbs. Method based on the Urban Liveability Index (Higgs et al. 2019) and Walk Score — three equal-weighted domains combined with an imbalance penalty.
Bar = this suburb's percentile · tick = typical (median) peer
District-level grade across New Zealand territorial authorities, combining 5-year price growth, rental yield (district median rent vs district median price), and stability (price-to-income level + affordability trajectory) via the same three-pillar method with an imbalance penalty. New Zealand has no free suburb-level prices, so this reflects your area's territorial authority. Within-New-Zealand relative, indicative only — not financial advice.
Alternatives are similar-rent suburbs (0.6–1.6x this suburb's median rent) in other territorial authorities that exceed it on the named metric. Indicative — not financial advice.
Rākaia is a small community in Canterbury with a population of 1,578 and a median age of 40. Median personal income is $43K per year. The main ethnic groups are European, Māori, Pacific Peoples. Canterbury population estimates moved +1.1% in the year ended June 2025, after moving +2.1% in 2024, which should be read as a broader regional movement backdrop rather than suburb-level migration precision. The resident employment base moved from 789 in 2018 to 861 in 2023 (+9.1%), which should be read as a census-to-census employment backdrop rather than a live jobs series. Te Waihanga's December 2025 Pipeline snapshot tracked over 12,000 NZ infrastructure initiatives, with more than 2,700 under construction and transport taking 52% of projected 2026 pipeline spend, which should be read as a broader national delivery backdrop rather than a suburb-specific project list.
Median weekly rent in Rākaia is $500 (500 houses, 0 units). This represents approximately 61% of median weekly personal income.
Livability indicators for Rākaia: 1 school with avg EQI 465.
In 2026, Rākaia recorded 6 building approvals (6 houses, 0 units), down 53.8% year-on-year.
Save suburbs here while you browse. Once the shortlist has two or more names, hand it straight into compare.
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No saved suburbs yet. Start with one ranking or suburb page, then compare once you have two candidates.
Open rankings to save the first candidates.
Rākaia has enough direct local evidence for a first-pass decision.
NZ suburb pages combine Stats NZ, MBIE, MoE, GTFS, and pinned service coverage. The key difference is that some items are direct feeds, while others are fallback or snapshot layers.
Treat current rent as a decision input, not as a guaranteed market quote.
This is a trusted coverage layer, but it is still a pinned snapshot rather than a live facility API.
It is good for stop presence and local network context, but not a guarantee that every operator or schedule is equally current.
This page stays indexable because Rākaia still carries enough real local context to help with NZ suburb discovery. It should still be read as a lighter locality brief, not as a fully covered suburb profile.
Use it as a quick locality brief first, especially if you are comparing it against larger or more fully covered suburbs.
Coverage is thinner on hospital coverage, transport stops, and deprivation index; don't let a single sparse read define the suburb.
Should the area still appeal, test it in compare, the region hub, or a bigger nearby suburb where coverage is denser.
The page still has enough real suburb context to remain searchable, but some market and service layers are too light for a full-confidence read.
Let this page frame the locality, then check the story against compare, the region hub, or a nearby better-covered suburb before treating it as final.
If Rākaia feels too thin on its own, use these nearby suburbs as stronger local reads before treating it as a full shortlist call.
pop -100 · rent +$65/wk · income +$4K
Similar local read: useful for context, but still compare the actual market signals.
pop same · rent -$50/wk · income +$11K
Similar local read: useful for context, but still compare the actual market signals.
The median weekly rent in Rākaia is $500/wk, based on the MBIE market rent dataset. The current rent signal is income-stretched rent market.
Income-stretched rent market: Weekly rent screens at about 61% of annual income. Use this as a suburb screening signal before comparing candidates; the matching rent ranking can provide broader market context.
QuickProperty's livability signals for Rākaia show: Stretched, Average, Slowing. These are based on rent affordability, school EQI, NZDep deprivation index, and transport access.
Housing data comes from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ). Demographics are from Stats NZ Census 2023. Schools data uses the Ministry of Education Equity Index (EQI). The deprivation score uses NZDep2018. Transport data is sourced from GTFS feeds.
RBNZ macro data updates with each deploy. Demographics are from NZ Census 2023. School EQI scores are from the Ministry of Education latest release.