Auckland homeless could be displaced as Dilworth School extends $1b property empire
Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Residents of two emergency accommodation motels will have to find somewhere else to live if a resource consent application to develop the motels into apartment buildings is granted.
The Dilworth Trust Board, which controls the financial assets of Dilworth School, has sought to build four “build to rent” apartment buildings with 100 dwellings at 92 Great South Rd in Epsom.
The Ascot Epsom motel, the Rayland Epsom motel and a group of units at 96 Great South Rd will make way for the new buildings which will be made up of mainly one-bedroom apartments to be rented on the open market.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) told Stuff that it had not been made aware that the motels would be redeveloped.
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According to Dilworth’s application, there are currently 57 units there that are used for emergency accommodation.
MSD regional commissioner Mark Goldsmith said the ministry did not have contracts with the motels, but it had been paying emergency accommodation grants on behalf of current residents in them.
He said the ministry would continue to assist people with nowhere else to stay to find accommodation, despite a dwindling number of available hotels.
This would include supporting people into staying with friends or family, in government-owned transitional housing or into more affordable “flat sharing” arrangements. He said motels were a “last resort”.
“Motels are not ideal, but it is extremely important to us that families in housing distress are not left to sleep rough or in cars,” Goldsmith said.
In the year ending June 2022, the Ministry of Social Development had paid out $393 million in emergency housing grants across the country across 144,525 grants. There were also 8500 people waiting for a home on the public housing register.
Meanwhile, according to its most recent annual return, the Dilworth Trust Board had over a billion dollars worth of assets including $767m in investment property and $130m in managed funds.
It holds titles for at least 68 properties in Auckland and 62 in Wellington.
Yet, becoming a residential landlord on this scale would be new for the trust, which primarily owns commercial properties and few residential houses.
A spokesperson for the trust did not respond to Stuff’s request for comment on what had prompted Dilworth’s decision to become an apartment developer and large-scale landlord.
The application said earnings from the apartments would go towards operation of the school, which “provides scholarships to boys from families of parents of good character in straitened circumstances to ensure boys become good and useful citizens”.
It said the day-to-day running of the apartments would be done either by the trust’s portfolio managers or an external property management firm.
Dilworth had to apply for a resource consent because the proposed three-storey buildings would break a nine-metre height limit and potentially obscure protected views of Ōhinerau Mt Hobson.
The Tūpuna Maunga Authority opposed the application in a submission, saying over time such developments would “erode the visibility and profile” of the maunga.
Despite this concern, the council’s consultant planner Andrew Miller recommended the consent be granted following Dilworth having obtained cultural values assessments from Ngati Te Ata Waiohua and Te Akitai Waiohua.
There will be a hearing before independent commissioners in November where both Dilworth Trust Board and the Tūpuna Maunga Authority will present evidence.
The development would require more than 3000m³ of soil to be shifted and was expected to take around three years to complete, Miller’s report said.