Developers say housing reforms mean free markets and extremely ugly buildings

New Zealanders won’t be able to live in fancy tiny apartments like those in Paris and Rome any time soon, a developer says.

Housing Minister Chris Bishop said on Thursday the government planned to simplify the process of building homes in urban areas and city fringe areas. It will bring a lot of new homes to the country.

He announced six reforms, including increasing intensification, removing minimum floor space requirements for apartments, requiring cities to allow expansion on the city’s fringes and setting housing growth targets.

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Christchurch property developer Vincent Holloway, managing director of Brooksfield, said the move to remove size limits on apartments would have the potential to make unbearably tiny homes the new affordable housing.

He said Morning Report Government reforms are shifting the situation toward a freer market for developers.

This means that developers can “build anything and let the market decide what it wants”, which is positive in some ways.

“Unfortunately in New Zealand … it would result in some buildings being extremely ugly.”

There will be a market for small apartments, but they are unlikely to emulate the stylish apartment buildings in places like Paris or Rome.

“They’re very beautiful, with huge windows and balconies facing the street, which gives you a wonderful living environment.”

He predicts developers will build the smallest possible apartments, so-called shoebox apartments, which will become the new affordable housing.

They would install tiny sunshade windows in apartment buildings located in the shade.

“That’s what’s going to happen when there’s a housing shortage and people have to accept what they have.”

Currently, developers usually insist on a minimum requirement of 50 square meters, partly because of bank regulations.

“That’s definitely going to change because it’s going to be first-home buyers and people looking for more affordable housing that are looking at these smaller apartments.”

Holloway said he was against urban sprawl, however, pushing local councils to relax urban and rural boundaries would ultimately lead to more opportunities and help the country out of its housing crisis by giving people more choice.

Current developments can take years to complete, and the increased costs will ultimately be passed on to buyers.

“By opening it up and making it more lenient, it should speed up the pace at which homes are built, and ultimately make it cheaper to build homes because of the speed.

“But at the same time you can also get really ugly places, so there are two sides to every coin.”

Auckland University of Technology architecture professor John Tookey said he did not want to see families living in micro-apartments because they were like “micro-slums” and did not provide a good living experience.

Bill Mackay, a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland’s School of Architecture and Planning, said he had seen many bad examples. He looked along Hobson Street and Nelson Street in Auckland and saw rows of shoebox apartments on both sides.

“Nothing is happening on the ground floor, it’s very bleak.”

Professor Tukey said unfettered inner-city development was not the wisest approach because nitty-gritty matters such as sewers, stormwater runoff and water supply were core issues.

“Cramming more and more people into cities is not necessarily a good outcome because we end up with a lack of infrastructure investment for decades to come.”

Infrastructure is urgently needed

Whangarei Mayor Vince Cocurullo, whose council sits on the New Zealand Local Government Council, said intensification in urban areas was only possible if they had good infrastructure.

While some councils, like his own, have planned for future growth and put in place infrastructure, he admits others have not.

He noted the risks of building so-called slums, pointing to the experience of Oakland, where multi-story apartments have led to storm damage in flood zones.

“So the key is development, and building infrastructure to handle that development.

“There’s no point in doing that if there’s concrete everywhere and there’s not enough stormwater management capacity.”

The Coalition has said it would offer local councils a 50 per cent share of GST revenue from new construction, but this was not included in Thursday’s announcement.

“This is exactly what LGNZ has been advocating for.”

While Bishop seemed to suggest local councils were partly responsible for the housing crisis, Cocurullo said they always had to follow government policy, whether it was the now-defunct Three Waters Scheme or changes to the building code.

For apartment blocks next to transport hubs, local councils need to ensure they have the capacity to build them.

He said it was “probably not practical” to build multi-storey apartment buildings in areas dominated by single-storey homes.