Apartment building labelled high risk

By ANNE GIBSON

It's not the usual real estate agent's sales pitch - first, you describe a property you're selling as a potential death trap, then you criticise the "low-life habits" of some potential buyers.

Martin Dunn, whose City Sales company has sold many of the new apartments springing up around downtown Auckland, has gone public with his fears for the safety of residents in the new Harvard on Hobson development.

Among the building's features are 1m-wide external walkways, as much as 12 storeys up.

City Sales stands to earn high commissions selling units in the 12-level, 209-unit block on Hobson St, but Mr Dunn said being asked to show potential buyers through the units put him in a difficult position ethically.

"A flimsy aluminium balustrade 105cm high that isn't even bolted at both ends is the only safety rail.

"One length of balustrade is 29m long and you can shake it easily. It's terrifying.

"People will fall off this or, when depressed enough, jump off it and I'm not joking."

The Auckland City Council says the walkway was approved before rules on balustrades were upgraded after Auckland teenager Danial Gardner's fatal fall in the Imax Centre four years ago.

Principal building officer Bob De Leur said the balustrade would now have to be 10cm higher, but there was nothing the council could do to change it retrospectively.

The Harvard's developer, Robert Holden of Conrad Properties, said the building was safe. "The building has a full code compliance certificate, which is the final certificate required," he said. "Just four weeks after opening, 85 per cent of apartments were full ... "

"City Sales are currently selling a number of Harvard apartments and even as late as last week asked for a sales price list update." Mr Dunn said he was greeted with "stunned silence" when he made his criticisms at the Property Council's Fisher & Paykel multi-unit dinner, an annual event focused on Auckland's inner-city apartment boom.

However, Property Council national director Connal Townsend said most developers and investors at the dinner agreed with Mr Dunn.

"This is an issue whose time has come and you won't find too much disagreement," Mr Townsend said. "There is a level of real disquiet that some of these things will meet a short-term market demand but in the long term they will become white elephants with a serious social effect."

He criticised the type of people some developments were attracting.

"Where we have enjoyed the excitement of a new inner-city lifestyle population, we are now going to have a subculture.

"There are a large number of these under construction, up to 2000 units. They won't be filled with the pleasant Asian students we work with every day because they are well away from AUT and the Auckland University.

"They will be part-filled with sickness beneficiaries and dole bludgers at $100 a bedroom, finally able to enjoy the excitement of the city.

"And they'll bring their low-life habits with them."

Harvard on Hobson