Mood of the Boardroom: Better Queen St, more parking: real estate chief

Peter Thompson. Photo / Ted Baghurst

Queen St changes, lack of car parking and Covid lockdowns have damaged Auckland's CBD, according to the head of the largest real estate agency.

Barfoot & Thompson managing director Peter Thompson is worried about the heart of the city, saying Covid restrictions did damage but so did other policies that he sees as discouraging people and letting the ram raiders in.

"Get rid of these silly walkways and open up roads again to get traffic into and through the city with ease," he said referring to Queen St's narrowing via landscaping and the new essential vehicle area on one section.

"We need to open up parking and attract people back to the heart of the city," says the boss of the agency which sells around one in three Auckland residential properties.

He cited Queen St where he believes changes haven't succeeded and he would prefer it to revert back to what is was. Planter boxes were not needed. "We don't have the crowds there anymore. We want the vibrancy of Queen St opened up."

Thompson works from offices the agency bought a few years ago on Shortland St and because he is in the CBD regularly, he says he knows it well and sees it as a very different place to pre-March 2020 when the first Covid-19 lockdown occurred.

Last year's 107-day Auckland border closure to keep the Delta variant contained took a huge toll on the city and its businesses, he said.

Politicians did not realise the damage their anti-Covid policies had done to what was once a great area.

"It's all very well sitting in Wellington and shutting down Auckland — it's the crime, homeless. It's going to take years to recover."

He also wants immigration rules relaxed to allow more international students back so they once again populate the city centre and bring life and energy to it.

Thompson is concerned about city crime and wants more police and longer sentences for the ram raiders and those who hurt others.

"Stop being so PC. If they do the crime then they should do the time."

Shifting the port, completing the City Rail Link, abandoning light rail plans, advancing a second harbour crossing and introducing congestion charging and more toll roads will all help the city, he thinks.

For his own business, Thompson anticipates slighter lower profits for the latest year, after the property market correction which started late last year.

He is less optimistic than he was previously about New Zealand business and the economy here.

Having borders stay shut for so long meant we were locked off from the rest of the world and that will cost us, he says.

"New Zealand not opening our borders until just recently has had more of an effect than what many predicted."

He believes the Reserve Bank's OCR moves were needed, but interest rates can't keep going up because it puts so much pressure on borrowers. The cost of living increases also concerns him.

Anti-money laundering regulations, wage rises and other compliance costs were hitting businesses hard, he says.

"More and more costs are being put onto business owners through new regulations."