Takeaway housing angers Murupara

By JO-MARIE BROWN

A strange housing crisis is developing in Murupara - one where the houses themselves are leaving town.

Streets such as Oregon Drive look normal enough. The gardens are tidy, windows are open and children's bicycles lie in driveways.

But as you pass number 32, the remains of a washing line and some discarded concrete steps are the only indications that someone once lived there.

The house itself could now be sitting on prime real estate anywhere in the country - snapped up by bargain hunters lured to Murupara by cheap property prices.

A report prepared by the Whakatane District Council says there is "no legal way in which to control the exodus of houses being uplifted from the town".

Nearly 10 per cent of sections in the Bay of Plenty community now stand empty and locals are becoming increasingly frustrated at having to deal with the mess left behind.

In many cases, concrete foundations and driveways lie buried beneath knee-high grass. Dandelions, trees and scrub grow in place of neat lawns and rosebeds.

Collecting rates from the absentee landowners is also causing headaches.

Seventeen people owe the council more than $1000 in rates - which average $665 a year. A further nine are also in arrears.

Some, desperate to get rid of the unwanted land, have even tried to give it away to the council or sell it to neighbours for as little as $1.

Community board chairwoman Sally Merriman says the council is trying to get a grip on the problem before the whole town disappears.

"We don't want that. We're trying to build it up. We've got a lot here it's just that we need to develop it and reveal it."

Murupara flourished in the 1970s and early 1980s as a mill town, with the population swelling to around 3500.

But a loss of forestry jobs has seen the number of residents fall to just 1959 according to last year's census.

A community board meeting held this week to address the problem of scruffy sections resolved to contact the disinterested landowners and urge them to take more responsibility for the upkeep of their properties.

"We'll negotiate with them and see if we can come to an arrangement with them or their neighbours ... so someone is there to look after it," Mrs Merriman says.

"People want to see their neighbourhood tidied up.

"It's not like local people have left it like that."

A $1000 bond, which the council implemented two years ago to cover any additional costs of clearing land once a house has been removed, will also be strictly enforced, Mrs Merriman says.

Quotable Value NZ'S rating and valuations manager for the Bay of Plenty, Mark Johannsen, says Murupara is not alone in having its houses disappear.

"It's a nationwide trend over the last eight to 10 years. As building costs have gone up, people have been looking around."

Bay of Plenty townships such as Kawerau, Taneatua, and Te Teko are also attractive price-wise.

"They look for properties for sale in small places. They will stretch the net as far as they need to, really."

Houses in Murupara sell on average for just $20,000, whereas a similar house in Rotorua would fetch $100,000, Mr Johannsen says.

"The problem is they're stuck with a section which can be quite expensive."

Eight empty sections sold in Murupara between November 1999 and September 2001 but five of those were for just $1.

Mrs Merriman says Murupara is a wonderful community to live in but no one can force people to maintain their sections or leave the houses there.

"It's a shame but that's what has happened," she says.

"People have bought up the houses and taken them away and left us with less and less."