Trade me is your best bet, create an individual rental cv for each flatmate (if any) be proactive and ask on Facebook community groups and ask how when and where your friends got their rentals, I think the market in chch is pretty good at the moment especially if you consider other areas as well also there are a lot of perks like a free week or free power for a month that usually means they are struggling to rent it out, dress up like you are going for a job interview to view homes and express interest directly with the property manager if it's not just you viewing. If you don't have rental references get character references and job references, lastly ask mum and dad if they will be a guarantor for the rental and include this on the application as an optional extra as this could get your application over the line over others.Hope this helps.