Tommy Honey is a man with a plan: "I want to solve Auckland's housing crisis one back yard at a time."
His grand idea goes by the catchy acronym SLIMBY ("shared living in my back yard") – a scheme where small prefabricated houses are placed on existing back yards, an idea developed during a year-long Master of Technological Futures degree at Auckland's Tech Futures Lab.
Formerly the head of Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design, Honey was seeking a new challenge when he came across Tech Futures Lab. He was frustrated with the "old" way of doing things, felt the need for further education, but the traditional MBA path didn't appeal.
"I've always tried to innovate but I've always been met with resistance. The old ways of thinking were also the basis of other post-graduate courses. There was something more collaborative and individually focused about this Master's that appealed to me."
Tech Futures Lab Founder, award-winning education futurist Frances Valintine confirms her impressions: "We are attracting a lot of people who want to change the way they and their businesses work. Many want to make a difference in the world, to change the way they interact with their customers or clients but don't really know how to do it. We allow them to discover innovative ways in which to change the status quo and focus on the future."
Education decision made, Honey launched into the 12-week immersion phase, spending around 25 hours a week at the Lab's Newmarket campus.
"Those 12 weeks were incredible," he says. "We were exposed to speakers who were experts in things many of us had never been aware of – artificial intelligence, data science, cybersecurity, blockchain and robotics, as well as new models changing the way we work such as the sharing economy."
The rest of the year-long, accelerated programme was dedicated to developing a concept and taking it to market. Like many coming into the Master's, Honey wasn't quite sure what that concept would be. He toyed with a number of ideas (including a Sorted-style website for teenagers) before realising his real interest lay in providing an innovative solution to Auckland's housing crisis.
"I'm an architect, so housing has always been a passion of mine," he says. "I wondered why there had never been any real 'disruption' to the housing market (an Uber or AirBnB for residential property) and I started thinking about how this could be achieved."
Inspired by the challenge, Honey started work on an app-based shared living programme. The name SLIMBY is a play on NIMBY - the "not in my backyard" attitude – and is based on sharing economy concepts.
Home owners with extra land lease their space to investors; investors pay for a prefabricated home to be placed on the section (costing around $150,000 for a 60 sq m dwelling). They then rent the home at a reasonable rate. Investors receive rent from the tenants while back yard owners are paid a lease by the investors.
The equation works well; much-needed, affordable rental properties in the market and good returns for investors and homeowners (around 7 or 8 per cent).
By the end of the Master of Technological Futures, Honey had engaged with more than 50 industry experts, surveyed the market, developed a business model and plan to commercialise his concept and launched a website to source potential prefab partners and connect homeowners and tenants.
He was also selected as one of only 19 innovators from the Pacific region to present SLIMBY at this year's Falling Walls Lab, which examines responses to contemporary social challenges.
Honey's SLIMBY project is still in development stages but he says that having the time and support to develop it through the Master of Technological Futures was a game changer.
Valintine worked with a team of academics and industry experts to bring the innovative Master's programme to life two years ago: "It came about after discussions with business leaders, who expressed a need for a postgraduate option that offered those already advanced in their careers an opportunity to develop their knowledge around the future of work," she explains.
After the 12-week immersion phase, the remaining 38 weeks can be done in conjunction with a work role and/or remotely.
Honey says: "It sounds dramatic, but the Master of Technological Futures course has been the most transformative thing that's ever happened to me."