It’s been a year since we launched Greater Auckland. We created Greater Auckland as a structure to provide wider influence for the Blog and to clarify our difference from traditional media. Over the last year, we have been successful in broadening our scope to include participation in some government initiatives and events. Admittedly, the role of Greater Auckland has remained a ‘work in progress’ besides supporting the work of the Blog and its focus on transport and urban issues. That is until now.
Over the next several weeks we will be joining forces with Generation Zero and a range of other organisations, and putting our name to a campaign to support the passing of the Unitary Plan, called The Coalition for More Homes.
We believe that enabling more housing across the city, in particular close to transit corridors and central locations, is critical to the future of Auckland. We imagine and advocate for an Auckland that has a range of housing types and tenures that support a diverse and growing population.
The Coalition for More Homes is a broad coalition including social housing providers, design and development companies, health and welfare organisations, and prominent individuals. Over the next several weeks we will be helping to grow this coalition and publicise the wide ranging support for the passing of the Unitary Plan.
Below is the open letter for the Coalition. If you would like more information or would like to add your name or your organisation’s name to the Coalition please visit the Coalition for More Homes website.
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congratulations! great to see this.
Have some of the larger unions been invited to join this Coalition? I heard a leader of the post-primary teachers association on the radio today. They are struggling to retain teachers in Auckland due to housing costs. Though it would be awesome if they put their weight behind this sort of initiative.
good thought.
This is a fantastic initiative. Thank you for the great work you are doing.
Good work
How about each organisation supporting it giving a short blurb (one long paragraph each maybe?) saying why they support it?
this is such a timely and potentially influential initiative; the range of social ills that stem from the high cost of housing is a blight on New Zealand society. I’d argue it does more to undermine quality of life and social mobility than any other issue that we currently face.
On a wider note it’s really great to see Auckland’s civic society strengthening and deepening it’s involvement in democratic processes. The conservative vocal yokel locals of Auckland have held sway over the city for too long. I believe that these people actually represent a wealthy minority of Aucklanders. Exacerbated of course by low voter turnout in local government elections.
Aside from engaging with elected representatives for more homes, the next important task Greater Auckland could be trying to increase turnout in local government elections.
Bravo to grassroots democracy!
While I agree with your general sentiments I take issue with your claim that “these people actually represent a wealthy minority of Aucklanders”, Mr Donovan. Stating that the “conservative vocal yokel locals (are you a Dr Suess fan?) of Auckland’ are “representative” of anything other than their own specific self interests is unsupported by evidence.
About time a group stands up for the little people against the NIMBYs. Well done.
You’ve missed off Cr Penny Webster and Cr Denise Krum
After what the ANZ boss said last week perhaps getting some of the banks onboard might be worthwhile too.
The first question at the launch was: ‘who’s funding you?’ FFS.
Cause passion for the city somehow could never occur without payment…
It’s the architects. Those wealthy thieves of the common man, influencing politics to their own personal benefit.
“Wealthy architects” Lolz, what both of them 🙂
Did Bernard Orsman ask the question? lol
Osman wasn’t there of course.
Not his subject area?
Herald rarely turn up to anything. Certainly almost never to any transport events.
Too busy hunting out frowny faces.
Newshub covered it though it here: http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/unitary-plan-lobbyists-go-for-broke-2016080118#axzz4G3u1es35
Grey Lynn Residents Association showing they don’t understand the plan at all; saying all the lovely old villas will be ‘decimated’ [obviously don’t understand that word either].
It would be a good start. Just knock over every tenth one and build a block of flats.
Of course they may in fact be right, 1 in 10 old houses going in the decades ahead, but I don’t think that’s what they meant….
Wealthy developers, charity groups, youth organisations, investor groups, architects, etc all support this proposal.
You’d be hard pressed to find such a diverse base of support for any political project.
That diversity is great. It then makes it hard for the NIMBY whingers to point their finger at one or two narrow interest groups.
This is strength and solidarity in numbers and diversity.
Need more to come to the party please….
I’m on the Catholic Diocese’s Affordable Housing group. I can promote this and seek the Church’s support.
Also in our group is an Anglican priest and I’m sure he could do the same in the Anglican church
The more the merrier
Good initiatives. A lot of churches are concerned about housing affordability. If you belong to a church you can try and speak to your church about it
I think it’s good if the churches get in behind it. Some of their nimby parishioners might, just might, start to look at things from a different perspective…
Meanwhile, in the news today, the UP will not deliver homes of under $800k.
If dealing to the supply part of supply & demand won’t work (and it won’t), it’s time to deal to the demand part. Business relocation to outside Auckland, better immigration policies, stricter rules surrounding investment houses, and a stocktake of where underused capacity exists nationwide, with incentives to use it, are key to solving the housing crisis.
Except it’s BS. That was the result of one of many modelling runs done to determine housing outcomes from the changes and each one focused on a different aspect, Labour focused just on this one. The coalition has a number of social housing providers who are supportive as the plan will allow them to build homes that are affordable. The prices are also based on current market conditions.
See also
http://thespinoff.co.nz/auckland-2016/01-08-2016/shamubeel-calls-bullshit-andrew-littles-affordable-housing-complaint/
As for your idea of shifting businesses and people outside of Auckland, you do know we don’t live in North Korea right?
Yeah, if this was North Korea, all those teachers would be stopped from fleeing Auckland for jobs in the cheaper regions. Perhaps if more parents followed the teachers example, we could sort out the demand side of the problem?
Perhaps a 1 child policy and internal passports are the solution. We could extend the points based system to immigrants from south of the bombays.
Solutions like these worked successfully in USSR and China.
Or we could just turn down the flow of the immigration tap to a sustainable level…
It’s definitely BS that the UP won’t deliver homes for under 800K. If you are talking mid-large detached houses on sections in urban areas close to town – sure, that is correct. But my analysis is that it will be possible to deliver 2 bedroom townhouses / apartments hitting the market between 470 – 600K, depending on location (low value through to mid/high).
I would have liked to have seen affordable housing requirements in greenfield locations. Whilst such requirements can be really problematic in infill situations, and I don’t support them, my experience in Adelaide between 2011-2014 was that they can work well in greenfield settings so long as there is flexibility to deliver the affordable housing on smaller allotments. So in Adelaide, we saw lots of two bedroom, 90 sq m single storey cottages on 220 sq m sections selling for 320K. Factoring in Auckland land and construction costs, that could be 450K here – in relative terms,’affordable’.
In the whole PAUP process there seems to have been an absence of wider perspective, looking across the Tasman at what has/can be done. the default seems to be looking to ‘Mother England’, which is a big mistake….
Apartment Living in Avondale
Set 3 – 106/26 Racecourse Parade Avondale
$430,000
Ockham Residential Ltd
If you are a first home buyer, looking for a beautiful yet affordable home that will be a solid investment for the future, read on…
This brand new one bedroom apartment is in one of Auckland’s most sought-after new developments – the Set buildings by Ockham Residential.
Situated 600m from the train station you could be on a train and in the city in a little over half an hour.
Architecturally designed, the Set buildings are reminiscent of Auckland’s much loved character flats, with a contemporary twist, and the solid masonry construction offers a distinct quality and charm.
Sitting proudly at the intersection of best practice architecture, urban design and sustainability, these buildings showcase Ockham Residential’s continuing commitment to lead Auckland’s urban regeneration.
SHA: This apartment is part of a Special Housing allocation and conditions do apply – speak to our sales team to see if you qualify.
http://www.realestate.co.nz/2842044
That reminded me of an auction a while ago, there’s still this article in the Herald:
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11659485
That cottage sits on just 73m².
Question: why are we building single storey houses on expensive land? Is building two storeys instead of one really that expensive?
Simon Wilson from Metromag here:
http://www.metromag.co.nz/city-life/simon-wilsons-auckland/5-crazy-ideas-unitary-plan/
Tim Murphy on the Spinoff here: http://thespinoff.co.nz/auckland-2016/02-08-2016/coalition-building-a-motley-bunch-launch-their-campaign-to-back-a-huge-boost-in-auckland-housing/
It’s very useful that you’ve called it the campaign for more “Homes”. So much of the media discussion talks about “the Housing crisis” – which leads to people thinking that the solution is just more (standalone) houses. As we all know however, a large part of the solution lies in other residential options like apartments, duplexes, terraced houses, etc.