Local Focus: Hamilton high-rise houses on the rise

It's been a record year for Hamilton, with new data showing record growth in the number of building consents issued over the past 12 months - up 28 per cent on 2017.

Hamilton City Council's 2018 data shows 1440 new homes were approved within 837 building consents. The difference between the two numbers is because most of the consents were for multiple homes on single sections.

The 2018 figure is the highest number of new home consents approved since digital records began in the 1990s.

There was also a significant increase in the number of new retirement units (131) in 2018, now 9 per cent of all new homes.

Hamilton City Council's general manager for city growth, Jen Baird says it's good to see a variety of different house types being built throughout Hamilton.

"There were 1440 approved, that's about 30 a week," she said. "And this growth is not just in one place either, this is growth is happening across the whole of the city.

"And half of the houses being built are being built in established suburbs and the rest is brand new suburbs like Rototuna and Rotokauri."

The types of housing being built is changing too, with multi-storied apartment blocks popping up on the fringes of Hamilton's CBD.

"We are seeing more density in some inner-city suburbs so that is infill housing and duplex's and townhouses and that kind of thing. But still, new developments where homes are on detached sections for people who want their back yard and their swimming pool."

Over the next ten years, the majority of Hamilton's urban development will be at the southern end of the city.

Here, quiet paddocks on the edge of the Waikato River will be connected to the city by a new bridge, making way for a new suburb.

"The suburb of Peacocke will, in ten years time, have about nine thousand people. In thirty years' time there will be twenty thousand people living in that area," Baird said.

"The Council is investing $2 billion in the city's biggest ever 10-Year Capital Programme to set the platform for planned, sustainable growth and to look after Hamilton's future transport, infrastructure and community facilities.

"That money is not just for the new areas. There's significant investment in parks and the environment and open spaces, as well as roads and water pipes and the standard infrastructure."

Baird says the new development will also have a positive impact on neighbouring suburbs.

"We get new activities and new shops and new cafes and those things."

Baird says the city's expansion development is now at a crucial point and it's vital council get the vision and the planning right.

"We have quite tight boundaries around our city and what that means is we have huge focus on developing compact urban forms. So we are developing in new areas like Peacocke and we have to have a focus on making sure the city is compact that we have a quality density within our city."

Made with funding from