Cry of protest from Auckland's 'kauri suburbs'

Monday, 1 August 2022

Chris Bishop, National's housing spokesperson, speaks at an August 1 meeting over removing protection for some character homes.

Protesters from Auckland's “kauri suburbs”, who want housing intensification laws repealed, say they will destroy the city's heritage.

The Save Our Suburbs Alliance protesters’ rally on Sunday, held at St Matthew-in-the-City in Auckland, brought together homeowners from more than 60 suburbs including Birkenhead Point, Herne Bay, Northcote, Parnell, Remuera, and St Mary’s Bay.

They fear a blight of unsightly three-storey blocks of flats and townhouses will appear in their heritage suburbs as a result of the Government’s housing intensification laws, and have called on opposition parties to pledge to repeal them.

But while National’s housing spokesperson Chris Bishop said changes to the intensification law were possible if his party won power, he gave short shrift the claim the city did not have a housing crisis.

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Protesters pushing for protection of the “kauri suburbs” through the repeal of the Government's housing intensification laws met at St Matthews-in-the-City in Auckland on Sunday.

Bishop told the rally it was dispiriting to hear a massive round of applause when one Character Coalition speaker said the country didn’t need more houses.

“I’m sorry, that is just wrong,” he said.

“We have a housing crisis in this country. The average house in New Zealand is $1 million.

“We have some of the most unaffordable housing in the western world. That’s because for 20 to 30 years politicians at both a central government level, and at a local government level have said no to more housing,” he said.

Suburbs like Herne Bay are among those residents fear will be trashed with intensive housing.

“I became a father a month ago, and I don’t want my son to grow up in a country and turn 30 in a country where the average house is not $1 million, but $2m, and he doesn’t have any hope of getting on to the housing ladder.”

The protestors say intensification can be done in Auckland, but it should not happen in the city’s heritage suburbs, which boast globally unique kauri villas built with timber milled in the Waitakere Ranges in the late 19th and very early 20th centuries.

Auckland central MP Chlöe Swarbrick defended the Government's intensification laws, saying Auckland needed homes in city-fringe suburbs to push down property prices for younger buyers.

They say the Resource Management (Housing) Amendment Act 2021 is dictatorial, and is not needed as Auckland’s current growth plans include space for 900,000 homes in the next 30 years.

'We can't live in a society where people go up to public people and say they hate each other,' said ACT leader David Seymour after a housing intensification protester told Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick they hated her.

said the act allowed intensive three-storey development on residential-zoned land throughout the city.

Mayoral candidate Mike Kampkes said the Government did not have a mandate from people in the suburbs to make such a change, and the impact would be enormous.

“It will pit neighbour against neighbour, and irretrievably degrade our suburbs,” he said.

Historian and politician Sandra Coney claimed a reverse snobbery was in action, with some determined to trash the historic suburbs in the cause of creating housing for the underprivileged.

She said Auckland’s outer suburbs, where land was cheaper, had seen intensive “monstrosities” thrown up, and it would be a tragedy if they started appearing in the heritage suburbs.

The protesters at St Matthew-in-the-City on Sunday were primarily older homeowners horrified that their neighbours could sell up and build a three-storey building just 1.5 metres from their boundaries.

But Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick appeared sceptical at protesters’ claims they cared about affordable homes for younger people.

Central government laws are more intensification on the 'kauri suburbs' of Auckland, and some homeowners don't like it. They invited politicians to a protest meeting in Auckland, but Labour stayed away.

And she rubbished a claim from a previous speaker that intensification would drive up dwelling prices.

Swarbrick, who was told by one protestor that they hated her, said basic economics meant that when there was more supply, prices would go down.

And she said: “If people are interested in advocating for more affordable housing, then again, I think your efforts would be very much welcome in the fight for more public housing.”

Swarbrick said intensification near city centres would protect nature and arable land around cities, but also avoid urban sprawl, which would lock in car dependency.

But she said under Auckland’s current plan 41% of the land within 5km of the city centre was locked out of development and housing intensity.

“The status quo is untenable,” she said.

ACT leader David Seymour said his was the only party to vote against the intensification laws.

“We could do this a lot better,” he said.

He criticised Labour and National Governments, whose policies had led to a huge ramp-up in property prices, but said there was widespread frustration with politicians who did not listen to voters.

“This piece of legislation that was cooked up in secret and rushed through with no proper due process is the kind of political action that had created that kind of frustration,” Seymour said.

Seymour favoured sensible intensification with design standards, would incentivise councils to consent dwellings by sharing GST receipts on building with them, and would bring in reforms to make building cheaper.

Labour MPs were invited to the rally, but none attended.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story wrongly said the rally was organised by the Character Coalition, not the Save our Suburbs Alliance. Corrected August 2, 9.44am.