If there is one thing that most tenants can agree on, it is that rent is a pretty significant expense each week.

But between Trade Me, the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and other real estate commentators such as Barfoot & Thompson, you can get quite a mixed view of what the rental market is doing.

Auckland real estate agency Barfoot & Thompson put out a release this week showing that Auckland renters now pay 4.4 per cent more, on average, than the same time the year before.

It said average weekly rent across all property types in Auckland was $524, up from $502. All property types, in all parts of Auckland, had average rents above $300 a week, for the first time.

Meanwhile, Statistics New Zealand reports rents up 2 per cent nationally in the past year, up 3.2 per cent in Auckland and down 0.8 per cent in Canterbury.

Trade Me reported rental prices up 4 per cent on a year ago in Auckland, to $520 and the national rent up 3.4 per cent to $450.

MBIE reports a mean rent of $518 in Auckland, $439 in Wellington and $375 in Canterbury.

Confused?

The difference comes down to how the data is measured.

Barfoot & Thompson reports on the properties on its books. Generally, landlords who turn to an agency to manage their properties have higher-value houses, so Barfoot & Thompson's statistics skew a bit higher.

Trade Me only reports on the rentals listed on its site, while MBIE's tenancy bond data measures the average rent of bonds lodged by landlords with MBIE.

This series presents a measure of the actual price of newly acquired rentals and is the most comprehensive collection of rental data available.

MBIE data shows that its statistics include more rental properties that rent for less than $500 per week than a source such as Trade Me. Trade Me has more disproportionately more properties that rent for more than $600 per week.

Regardless of what the trend is, if you want to know whether the amount of rent you pay is reasonable, you can compare using the Tenancy Services site here.