The flat, known as The Debacle, belongs to TDub Ltd, whose directors are rugby players Michael Leitch, who plays for Japan, Johan Bardoul, France-based Maama Vaipulu and Chiefs player Brad Weber.
Cutlers tried to rent out the party flat in Cumberland St based on "highest price offered as well as quality of tenants'' - a move the Otago University Students' Association condemned.
On social media yesterday, property consultant Matt Cutler said he had scrapped the auction idea and he wanted to "apologise to those offended and take full responsibility''.
"We won't try this again,'' he said.
Mr Twyford said today it was "disappointing that Cutlers Property Management treat the renting out of properties to students as a game'' and the Government was overhauling New Zealand's outdated rental laws.
"Having a home is a basic necessity and most students have limited money to spend on rent.
"Making students compete against each other for a flat is distasteful.''
Some Facebook comments accused Cutlers of seeing "how much money [they] can force out of struggling students'', although others said they could see Cutlers' point of view.
"Regardless of what price is put on this flat there will be tenants prepared to make a higher offer,'' one commenter said.
Mr Cutler told the Otago Daily Times usually what happened with the nine-bedroom flat was there were "four groups of lads wanting to take the flat that's very well-known for partying''.
"They're groups of lads with no references [from prior landlords],'' he said.
Cutlers might get limited information from their schools, but ended up "guessing who the best group's going to be''.
What happened sometimes in that situation was groups were given the opportunity to make their best offer - for instance in two instances last year, Cutlers allowed groups to make an offer and the landlord had also agreed to make improvements to the flat to reflect the higher price, for instance putting in a new kitchen and carpet, or double glazing, depending on what the tenants asked for.
Cutlers managed more than 700 flats in the university area and giving tenants the chance to make a higher bid on a flat was relatively unusual, Mr Cutler said.
The Debacle would be offered at the fixed price of $165 per person per week this year, but Mr Cutler said Cutlers would "not necessarily'' stop tenants from competing on the basis of price in future.
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Comments
capitulation to political grandstanding is the worst possible move cutlers could have made
Acknowledging a mistake is a cause for admiration. Not being in politics, Cutlers is not intransigent.
@dissenter I agree completely. And Phil Twyford would benefit from taking an introductory economics paper.
I wonder if Ec101 says competition for scarce resources increases value.
I wonder too if that was the reason surplus food was dumped at sea at a point in NZ history. Discredited philosophy.
Greed by cutlers is what this is.