Cooking The Books

OPINION: Each week, the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking The Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's how to guard your pennies if you're renting your house. Hosted by Frances Cook.If it's not enough that many people are locked out of the housing market, now even renters are feeling the squeeze.Our housing problems have led to higher rents, and those costs are seeping outside of the main centres of Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch.Trade Me's Property Report shows rents in the regions have gone up twenty percent over the last three years. On average, it'll now cost you an extra 3-thousand a year.Add that to the list of things making it harder for people to save and get ahead, then.How can you save to buy your own house, when it costs you more every day to pay off someone else's mortgage?For the most part, renters are stuck. When there's stiff competition for a house, you can't exactly negotiate a lower rent.But knowledge is power, and if you know your renting rights, there are plac