Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Premium
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Developer waits more than a year to get consent to build 48 social houses in Tauranga

Carmen Hall
By Carmen Hall
NZ Herald·
23 Jul, 2022 02:00 AM6 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

A review of the building consent process has been welcomed but how long will it take? Photo / Getty Images

A review of the building consent process has been welcomed but how long will it take? Photo / Getty Images

A Tauranga developer has slammed delays after waiting more than a year for building consent for 48 desperately needed social housing homes in Greerton and hopes a review of the system will help speed the process up.

Wallace Development national manager Tyler Tabak. Photo / File
Wallace Development national manager Tyler Tabak. Photo / File

Wallace Development national manager Tyler Tabak said while the 13-month process to get consent was frustrating for the company, its true impact would be felt by those living in cars or other marginal situations while desperately waiting for a home.

''For people who are living in their cars and living in tents or living under tarpaulins around the city, it is a massive difference.''

''It costs us time and it costs us money but we are not the ones who are sitting in a car or under a tarpaulin in a garden somewhere waiting for somewhere to live. That is how we look at it.'

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

''The reality of it is we can all go home while people are still on the streets because we haven't been able to get started.''

Wallace hopes a review of the building consent system, announced by Minister for Housing and Construction Megan Woods earlier this week, would help modernise the consent system.

Woods said the review would look at the current system that was established in 1991 when many new buildings were detached, single-storey and timber-framed.

The system needed to evolve, she said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

''A better building consent system will support our Government's wider goals to transform the housing market, unlock productivity growth, stimulate urban development where it is needed, and make homes more affordable for all."

Classic Builders operations general manager Rowan McKeany said its average consent time in Tauranga was 10 weeks, six weeks over the standard 20 working days.

Discover more

Pāpāmoa East Interchange start date confirmed

18 Jul 10:55 PM
Business

'Wreak havoc': Job losses feared as new build inquiries plunge by up to 80 per cent

19 Jul 05:00 PM
New Zealand

Interest rate or cashback debated as less people expected to own homes in future

16 Jul 07:30 PM

Movie theatre, health spa, dancefloor: $280m luxury retirement living plan revealed

22 Jul 06:00 PM

''Some of our consents are being held up by the city's infrastructure delays, resulting in costs exceeding hundreds of thousands of dollars. As you can imagine, this makes a substantial difference to the bottom line.''

If building consents were delayed it impacted a multitude of people, McKeany said.

''It slows the building programme, impacting our staff, suppliers and tradespeople, and it pushes out the completion date meaning our clients have to continue paying for alternative accommodation for longer.

''Of course, delays also impact building costs. Our building rates have increased by 6 per cent so far this year and delayed consents can mean the client's build price is increasing.''

McKeany said the consenting process had gradually worsened year on year and ''right now we welcome any progress to improve things''.

Tauranga City Council building services manager Steve Pearce said the council had issued more than 2500 consents in the past 12 months, totalling a value of nearly $1 billion.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

''The construction industry in the Bay of Plenty and throughout New Zealand has been under enormous pressure for the last few years. The volume of residential building consents nationwide broke a long-standing 47-year record in 2021.''

He said that coupled with the increased demand for housing, the construction industry has desperately tried to attract and retain suitably qualified staff while battling material supply shortages.

Record volumes of building consent applications last year meant there had been challenges meeting normal timeframes and the council was open about that.

The council had taken several steps to address the situation, including taking on 10 new staff this year, alongside contract staff, to deal with a backlog of consents.

''As a result, consent timeframes are improving significantly.''

In the past 12 months, consents had taken an average of 43 elapsed days and 22.6 statutory days.

''Complex projects typically require greater input from specialist engineers and designers, which we will often require to be peer-reviewed to a high standard. Unfortunately, not all applications are of a high quality, and some have a significant number of questions asked by our team before they can be approved, and these ones will clearly take longer.''

Master Builders Association national vice-president and owner of Tauranga-based Calley Homes Johnny Calley. Photo / Supplied
Master Builders Association national vice-president and owner of Tauranga-based Calley Homes Johnny Calley. Photo / Supplied

Master Builders Association national vice-president and owner of Tauranga-based Calley Homes, Johnny Calley, said the organisation was pleased with the minister's announcement and the intent to make positive change within the consenting system.

''Master Builders has been working closely with MBIE on the first principles review and will continue to do so as the formal review continues. However, we do understand it will take considerable time to work through the full process so are keen to continue to assist MBIE and find some quick gains that already exist within the existing system.''

Classic Builders Lakes District owner Paul Taylor said he supported any moves to make the consent process faster and easier.

He said his company had no problems getting consent for its homes but it understood the importance of getting it right the first time.

''The quality of information going in is the quality of information coming out.''

Taylor said it had experienced good sales in the last couple of months and believed that was due to fixed price contracts and being able to offer 0 per cent deposits on house and land packages in Rotorua and Taupō areas.

Building consent figures from the Rotorua Lakes Council from the 2021/22 financial year to the end of June show it issued 1172 consents valued at $279 million. In the 2021/22 financial year it issued 1223 consents valued at $213m.

Rotorua Lakes Council Rotorua district development deputy chief executive Jean-Paul Gaston said the city needs thousands more homes of all types to address its current critical housing shortage and thousands more in the medium to long term to meet expected future demand.

''We would be keen to see anything that will improve processes to enable more homes to be built as quickly, effectively, and efficiently as possible while also addressing affordability.''

* Submissions on the consultation to review and modernise the building consent system close on September 4.

Save
    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times

Scrapping old boat funds youth sailing

Bay of Plenty Times

Police seek man with BoP, Waikato links

Bay of Plenty Times

'An academic sport': Book Battle debuts in the Bay


Sponsored

Kiwi campaign keeps on giving

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Scrapping old boat funds youth sailing
Bay of Plenty Times

Scrapping old boat funds youth sailing

Yacht club volunteers took apart the donated boat to salvage the valuable bits.

10 Sep 02:27 AM
Police seek man with BoP, Waikato links
Bay of Plenty Times

Police seek man with BoP, Waikato links

10 Sep 02:17 AM
'An academic sport': Book Battle debuts in the Bay
Bay of Plenty Times

'An academic sport': Book Battle debuts in the Bay

10 Sep 02:15 AM


Kiwi campaign keeps on giving
Sponsored

Kiwi campaign keeps on giving

07 Sep 12:00 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP