Property Institute warns of ugly, soulless, cities

Property Institute of New Zealand Chief Executive, Ashley Church, is urging a cautious approach to the final ‘Using Land for Housing’ report released by the Productivity Commission and has warned that adopting its recommendations, without strong checks and balances, would lead to ugly, soulless, cities.

The Commission report has recommended a range of measures which, it claims, will encourage a more efficient use of land through greater density and a more transparent process for opening up new land on the fringes of cities like Auckland.

The proposals include:

· The removal of heritage or special character policies that restrict the redevelopment of housing stock

· The avoidance of limits on housing density

· The removal of the requirement for apartments to have balconies and the removal of the requirement for apartments to be a minimum size

· A requirement for Councils to undertake a cost-benefit analysis before introducing height restrictions on building

· An increase in current height limits where it cannot be shown that the benefits they create outweigh the costs

· Amending the Resource Management Act, so that councils would only need to notify directly affected parties of proposed plan changes that are specific to particular sites

Mr Church says that many of the proposals deserve further investigation but almost all of them would need to be modified to ‘tone down’ the ‘extreme impacts’ they would give rise to in their current form. He says that adopting the report, as presented, would lead to ugly, soulless, cities that most kiwis wouldn’t recognise or want to live in.

“One of the things which attracts people to New Zealand is our outstanding quality of life and the fact that we have created some of the world’s most livable cities with character values and amenities which are the envy of most of other nations. Adopting this report, in its current form, would effectively kill off that advantage – at least in Auckland – within 20 years”.

Mr Church cites the removal of height restrictions as an example.

“For generations, Auckland Councils have protected line-of-sight view lines so that Aucklanders could see the mountains and key features that are so dear to them from many points in the city. Adopting this report would bring an end to that and many iconic views would be obscured by apartments popping up indiscriminately, like mushrooms”.

Mr Church says that he is concerned that the Commission is also calling for significant reductions in the requirement, by Councils, to consult with the public on such proposals and cites this as evidence that the Commission knows that its recommendations are not in keeping with the values shared by most kiwis.

“Calling for a reduction in public scrutiny is a sure sign of nervousness about the prospect of getting support for your proposals. If the Commission believed that its ideas were consistent with community aspirations, they would welcome such scrutiny”.

Mr Church says that there are also some very worthy ideas in the report and cites, as an example, a proposal to remove the requirement for foreign investors to obtain Overseas Investment Office approval for the purchase of land - provided the land is developed into housing within an acceptable timeframe.

“This is a great idea and would channel foreign investment into an area where it is needed most – the construction of new homes”.

However, Mr Church says he would like to see the Government go even further and channel all foreign investment into the Auckland property market into the construction of new dwellings.

“This would take some of the speculative pressure off existing stock – and would add to our overall supply of housing and help to solve the most pressing problem facing Auckland”.

ENDS

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