Gilmore and Judy Wall relocated from Auckland to a 105 sq m home in Golden Sands. Photo/Andrew Warner.
Gilmore and Judy Wall relocated from Auckland to a 105 sq m home in Golden Sands. Photo/Andrew Warner.
Bay of Plenty Times Weekend reporter Dawn Picken explores why our backyards may be destined to stay small.
Newly-released data shows the Bay of Plenty far surpasses the nation when it comes to shrivelling home sections and ballooning prices. Numbers obtained by the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand show a nearly one-third contraction in the size of bare land sold the past 10 years, while the price per square metre has risen 110 per cent.
Nationwide, median area of land sold shrank 5 per cent, while price per square metre rose 38 per cent.
Bay of Plenty Times Weekend reporter Dawn Picken explores why our backyards may be destined to stay small.
Packed Tight in Papamoa
Nail guns punctuate the crisp autumn air on a Wednesday morning at the Coast subdivision near Sandhurst Drive. Here on the Papamoa-Mount Maunganui border sits a mix of one- and two-story homes in various stages of completion.
One home stands out for its peaked roof, two-level construction and proximity to other sites. Peer between the house and its neighbours and you'll spy a hallway's worth of space. Enough room for a washing line and not much else.
Tony O'Brien owns the Tauranga branch of Fowler Homes, the company building the peaked-roof house. He says the 200 sq m home sits on just 226 sq m. A local family bought the home and land package for $753,000.
"It's maxed out on the site. You couldn't put another inch of floor space on there. It's difficult to make them look good, so that's where design comes in," O'Brien says.
The average-sized section Fowler Homes builds on in Coast, The Lakes and Golden Sands is 450 sq m.
"A lot is about efficiency, cutting down on hallways and maximising every bit of space."
About a half-kilometre away, a row of similar one-level homes flanks the overpass leading to the Tauranga Eastern Link.
Tucked onto a street called Te Hare Piahana Way, evidence of family life peeks from behind fences: a trampoline here, a basketball hoop there. Small outdoor tables, clotheslines and planter boxes fill narrow strips of grass between homes.
Tawhirimatea Tamihana has been renting a three-bedroom home at the end of the street since March.
The Port of Tauranga worker pays $520 per week and says the home features LED lighting and double-glazing.
"It's good, except for the construction works that are going on the other side ... It's quiet around here and apart from the traffic, it gets heavy at night, it's not too bad."
Tamihana says he doesn't mind living close to neighbours. "I hardly see them anyway, because I'm mostly at work."
A 142 sq m home on 333 sq m of land on Te Hare Piahana Way is listed online for $639,000.
Diminishing Dream
The classic Kiwi dream of the quarter-acre section is being replaced with a smaller standard size for new home sites. Bay sections have been shrinking in the past three years, according to those in the building trade.
Population growth plays a role in the leaner land. Government statistics show the Western Bay district was projected to grow 25 per cent from 2013 until 2033. Tauranga City was projected to grow 37 per cent during that 20-year period.
Shrinking sections are also fuelled by factors including rising land and building costs and government requirements to fill in cities rather than encourage sprawl.
It means the average section size for new home builds in Tauranga has contracted from 677 sq m in 2000 to 490 sq m in 2016, according to City Council data (see graphic).
The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ), which uses median numbers (half of sales fall below the midpoint, half above), reports a median sale price for bare land in the Bay of Plenty the first quarter of this year at $268,478.
Median land price sat at $190,000 for in the first quarter, 2007, an increase of 41 per cent. Price per square metre has more than doubled the past decade.
REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell says the trend towards tiny has benefits as well as negatives.
"There are some clients who do win in terms of smaller section sizes: first-home buyers who want to get into the market and people preparing for retirement don't need as much land."
Harcourts managing director Nigel Martin says he's seeing an average section size in the 400s, and few clients are baulking.
"A lot are coming from Auckland. They're used to living in more dense environments, so coming to a section under 400 square metres, it may not be abnormal to them."
"People are happy to sacrifice a big section if they can walk to the beach." He says more clients are buying small sites rather than lifestyle blocks.
"It comes down to what's cost-effective. To offer a larger site and home often pushes the price outside people's budgets."
Simon Anderson, chief executive of Realty Services, which operates Eves and Bayleys, says home prices are "definitely at one of the highest levels I've seen," and that the market needed to serve people at all stages of life, from young families through to retirees seeking to downsize.
"The challenge at the moment is resources, builders available. We're going to the stage where there's quite a wait."
In the Plan
Homes that look close enough to be able to reach out and touch your neighbour? It's all in the plan: city, regional and national mandates for urban growth require more homes on smaller sites.
Acting manager of Tauranga's City Planning and Growth Team Andrew Mead says the requirement for SmartGrowth (a regional government and agency collaboration focused on development) will be 15 dwellings per hectare on greenfields (undeveloped land) in 2037.
He says the city is sitting at around 12.5 dwellings per hectare, but that's changing.
"In 15 to 20 years' time, we're looking to apply that 15 dwellings per hectare standard to every subdivision and most developments are there, already ... some developments are quite a lot more intensive than that."
Tony O'Brien of Fowler Homes at the Coast subdivision. Photo/George Novak
Mead says achieving the target means an average section size of 450 sq m to 500 sq m.
"They're selling really well, so there's a market for that type of stuff. If we reduce section sizes, we can deliver sections at a more affordable level."
Many home sites in the Golden Sands subdivision in Papamoa East reflect the target size, although some sit on even smaller plots.
Janine Speedy of the city's Planning and Growth team says there's no minimum lot size in the Wairakei Residential Zone (where Golden Sands sits).
"But developers need to illustrate they can meet all the other rules such as a 3-metre front setback, 1.5-metre side setback, private open space, etc ..."
She says a minimum 325 sq m lot size requirement applies to Suburban Residential Zones.
"We have a number of different residential zones that have different minimum lot size requirements."
Developers must lodge a resource consent application to build on less than 325 sq m in a Suburban Residential Zone.
Golden Sands' website lists homes and land packages for sale ranging from a 158 sq m home on a 364 sq m site for $599,800, to a 200 sq m home on a 608 sq m site for $799,000.
University of Waikato environmental planning professor Iain White says having choice is key.
"If you look at overall housing stock available, there's quite a lot of big sections you can buy if that's what you wanted."
He says carving out smaller sites enables more affordable housing and more diverse housing stock for different life stages.
What's more, he says sprawling communities are expensive to service, requiring more infrastructure such as roads, waste treatment facilities and utilities.
"Councils around New Zealand are creating denser housing stock. It's a more efficient model. Rates should be lower; you should have more public transit links and more people connected in the area. With a sprawled model, all things being equal, you would expect the council would have a higher bill to maintain the infrastructure."
Professor White shifted to Hamilton from Manchester, UK, three years ago and says this is the first time he's lived in a detached house.
"That's one of the reasons people move to New Zealand. The challenge is we're under pressure, and we need to make sure we use this population dividend because it's very good for the country and cities to be growing in a way that provides us with the most benefits and imposes the least cost on ratepayers."
Small Size/Green View
Retirees Judy and Gilmore Wall say they're grateful to have built their home in Golden Sands two years ago when they moved from Auckland. They spent $365,000 for a 105 sq m home on a 310 sq m site.
"We had more choice in where we could buy, so we chose an area that backs onto a swale; it had a small street in front and a walkway beside. It feels quite spacious," says Mr Wall.
Stepping into the Walls' home with angled ceiling, the home seems bigger than its numbers suggest. Hallways and extra doors are non-existent.
Kitchen, dining and lounge areas are open. Mrs Wall says: "It's a little home, but it's what we wanted. And just something pretty easy and we've got a big outlook, so we're pretty happy."
Double-glazing and insulation make the home warm and quiet, says Mr Wall. "That's a real bonus. You don't have the noise of neighbours disturbing you."
Green space becomes more important as more homes squeeze onto smaller sites.
Tauranga's city plan requires new urban growth areas like Wairakei to include 1.7 hectares of open space per 1000 people.
Tauranga City Council urban strategy manager Michael Tucker says: "It's part of a broader strategy; if we're looking at advancing more intensive forms of housing, it means instead of a big back yard, we tend to have a small backyard or none, so we look for recreational space in local parks and reserves."
Here to Stay
Peter Cooney, group director of CBC Construction and Classic Builders, says one hectare of land three years ago cost around $300,000, depending on location. Today, he says the same land would cost $700,000 to $1.5 million.
Average section size his company sells range between 400 sq m and 450 sq m, with the smallest, a joint venture with the Western Bay District Council, sitting on 250 sq m in Omokoroa. Those home packages start at $440,000.
Cooney says small sites are here to stay.
"Sections aren't going to get any bigger by any means. If councils and regions are going to do medium-density housing, then greater amenities need to be required like parks, walking areas, shopping, all those sorts of things."
Cooney says The Lakes is an example of a subdivision offering all those factors, though he says developers make more money for residential land than commercial.
"People expect to see that amenity there. Society's about going for coffee, catching up for a beer in the area and not driving too far. That's what greater density has brought."
Thorne Group director Peter Buck says his company was one of the early adopters of higher density developments, such as Urban Ridge in Bethlehem.
"Of the master planned developments we have been involved with over the last five years [in excess of 250 lots], average section size has been 335 sq m. Sites developed has been as small as 235 sq m."
The company's website lists a 126 sq m home on a 273 sq m section in Urban Ridge for $658,000. Another Thorne Group home on Frank's Way, off Sandhurst, is listed at $621,000 for a 146 sq m home on a 288 sq m section.
Golden Sands resident Gilmore Wall worked in the building industry as a draughtsman for 25 years and says he doesn't fully accept the need for Bay residents to live small.
"Everything's being squeezed up because land is expensive to develop. We've got plenty of it. It's just that we choose to make more money out of it per square metre. I guess that's what it comes down to, doesn't it?
"I think they've got this stuff wrong in a way," Wall says.
Council's Michael Tucker says Tauranga is still delivering big houses on big sections, with few other types of housing available. He says our ageing population tends to demand smaller houses close to facilities and transportation.
"My job is to find ways we can enable that type of housing to suit our future population."
