It’s a sad fact that the vast majority of NZ rentals do not allow tenants to keep pets. One rental-only apartment complex is challenging the norm by warmly welcoming both two legged and four legged residents.

As a child growing up in an owner-occupied Auckland home, having pets around was a normal part of life. Our household included, at various times, cats, dogs, bunnies and fish – even, when we lived in rural Kumeū, horses and sheep. It all seemed absolutely natural.

So you can imagine my shock when I left my parents’ apartment – where I slept nightly beside our smushed-face cat Dries Van Meowmeow – in order to go flatting, and discovered that having animals in rentals is almost unheard of (unless feral flatmates count).

The sad fact is that most rentals in New Zealand do not allow their residents to have pets. But why? While it’s probably true that many landlords are not personally keen on animals in their properties, the lack of pet-friendly rentals in Aotearoa largely stems from a lack of legislation upholding pet owners’ rights. That makes us something of an international outlier. In many places the law expressly allows renters to share their homes with a fluffball friend. Writing about New Zealand’s lack of pet-friendly rental laws in The Spinoff, Charlotte Muru-Lanning was passionate in her frustration with the situation: “The omission of pet tenancy rights is just one miserable symptom of our attitude toward renters in this country. And as far as I’m concerned, it’s an attitude that’s relentlessly and unnecessarily cruel.”

There had been hope that the sweeping changes to tenancy law set out in the Labour government’s Residential Tenancies Amendment Act of 2020 would include a provision covering pets, but it wasn’t to be. More recently, National’s “pet bond” policy, set to come into effect in late 2025, looks promising, but has been criticised as unfairly weighted towards landlords. At up to two weeks’ extra rent – on top of the existing bond – pet bonds will also be an added expense for many already-stretched renters. The reality of being an animal-loving renter in New Zealand continues to largely suck.

Muru-Lanning noted that studies consistently affirm the positive impacts of having pets, such as marked reductions in anxiety, depression, insomnia and stress. She herself is a cat owner whose tabby has been banished to her parents’ house because her landlord doesn’t allow pets. “Most days I miss the ineffable energy that an animal brings to a home, the certainty of a good night’s sleep that comes with a cat curled up at the end of the bed and the cheer of returning home after work to a tiny animal,” she wrote.

I was in the same boat after I left home. It wasn’t only our cat Dries who I missed, but also our smushed-face dog, Marshall, who at home would faithfully follow me around for no other reason than admiration and aroha. My first three flats were starkly different, connected only by their ban on pets: a dingy basement flat in a Grafton villa, a sunny Kingsland duplex, and an Onehunga bungalow with a small but lovely yard I knew pets would love. When the owner showed us the latter, she brought her dog. “Is this flat pet friendly?” I asked her hopefully. She shook her head: “Only for my girl.”

You know who would have appreciated that Onehunga yard? My partner’s teddy bear of a huntaway-rottweiler, Zorro. Once I’d moved in, he’d occasionally hang out with us there, but I always felt guilty breaking the landlord’s rules. Finding a suitable rental is hard enough, but pet-friendly ones are particularly scarce, and they come at a steep premium. When Muru-Lanning wrote about the issue two years ago, just 14% of rentals on Trade Me permitted pets. At the time of writing, “pets OK” is tagged on 17% of properties – in other words, consistently less than one-fifth of rentals are pet-friendly.

Fortunately, my partner wiggled her way into one of Auckland’s few pet-permitting flats, taking Zorro to an ancient, pricey Newmarket villa. For the privilege of a dog-friendly place, she and her flatties paid more for their cold, damp, dark three-bed than we paid for our cosy, warm Onehunga four-bed. Zorro was one very expensive flatmate.

Their financial burden was eased slightly once I moved in along with my brother’s cat Sammy, who had to be rehomed because my brother was moving overseas. Finally, after four flats in as many years, I once again got to enjoy dog and cat cuddles at home. But coming home to a pet shouldn’t be reserved for a privileged few. Since successive governments and most landlords don’t seem to agree, industry leaders are taking initiative. One of them is the major property company Kiwi Property. They recently opened Resido, a pet-friendly apartment complex in Sylvia Park, where both two and four legged residents are welcome.

“We understand that pets are family, and it can be very hard for renters to find rental properties that allow pets in Auckland,” says Sharry Foe, Resido’s property and leasing manager. “Our apartments are designed for long-term living, and we want our residents to feel completely at home. For many, the companion of a pet will bring more joy to their lives and make them feel more connected to the community.”

Resido residents are free to live with a bird, cat, dog (25kg or under) or fish in their Sylvia Park apartment. Pets can even attend a pre-move-in tour, giving them the “opportunity to take a look (and smell) of their new home, the grounds, and the neighbourhood,” says Foe.

At the rental-only Resido, there are no laborious hoops for pet owners to jump through. “We’re making it as easy as possible for pet owners,” says Foe. “They just need to advise us on their application form that they have a pet, along with the pet’s details – their type, breed, weight and whether they have been microchipped and registered with the council.” Existing residents wanting to introduce a pet only have to inform the resident services team that a new four-legged flatmate is moving in. “The team loves to know the names of the pets, just as they know the residents’ names,” says Karlee Lightbourne, Kiwi Property’s head of marketing.

On a tour of Resido, Lightbourne tells me her labradoodle – who, like most dogs apart from behemoths like great danes or saint bernards, is well under the complex’s 25kg cutoff – is heading next to the on-site dog wash station, the sort usually only seen at pet stores.

Once you’ve washed and groomed your dog, you may want to reward them with a run around Pooch Park, Resido’s private dog park, where canine residents are free to run around and play within close proximity of their homes. “It’s a great space to meet and mingle with other Resido dogs and their owners, which is all part of building our Resido community,” says Foe. The fully-fenced Pooch Park has sensor lights for nighttime and ample dog poo bins.

As we walk through Resido’s community garden, Foe talks about the life-changing convenience of being able to just “pop out in the evening to walk your dog without having to go out of the complex”. Of course, she adds, the wider Mount Wellington neighbourhood has lots of parks for a great extended walk. Sylvia Lane, the Sylvia Park dining district, also welcomes dogs outside – making it ideal for a summer’s evening meal with your four-legged friend.

In a country where many landlords’ attitudes towards pet-owning renters remain frustratingly close-minded, Kiwi Property is doing something quietly revolutionary. Despite its location a block away from one of the country’s busiest malls, the peaceful Resido feels more like a residential complex somewhere like Sweden or Denmark than a typical Aotearoa apartment block. I know my partner and I would love to live there – and I’m pretty sure Sammy and Zorro would love it too.