Struggling to buy a home? Join the politicians

Monday, 1 January 2024

Te Whanganui-a-Tara Māori ward councillor Nīkau Wi Neera in the flat he shares with four others.

The long arms of Wellington’s housing struggle are reaching senior capital city politicians who face a “total nightmare” of finding a place of their own.

Wellington Central MP Tamatha Paul, Greater Wellington Regional Council transport committee chairperson Thomas Nash, and Wellington City councillors Rebecca Matthews, Nīkau Wi Neera and Nureddin Abdurahman are among the list of Wellington renters in a tight and increasingly expensive rental market.

Nash, who has two young children, owns a suburban section. But building was getting harder as construction prices had doubled and interest rates had gone up notably since he bought two years ago.

“I know of others, with and without families, who have had difficulties moving from Auckland, Australia and elsewhere. [It’s a] total nightmare accommodation situation in Wellington,” he said.

“The housing situation in Wellington is seriously dire and absolutely not something that any city should accept.”

Geordie Rogers, of Renters United, is running for the Pukehīnau/Lambton ward in the upcoming council by-election. He will be campaigning with the threat of becoming homeless as the landlord, fresh from discovering his deck was quake prone, may sell.

Numbers out from QV in December show that the Wellington region’s average property value jumped by 3.2% in the three months to November, placing it above only Rotorua and Hastings nationally. It was a reversal in a downwards trend in the capital, which came on the back of years of large property price increases.

It was recently announced that a plan hatched by the Government and Wellington local body politicians had a large city block, northwest of the Basin Reserve, earmarked for up to 1500 new homes. It was part of the new plan that came out of ditching the capital’s $7.4 billion Let’s Get Wellington Moving transport overhaul. It is understood further housing areas are being looked at south of the Basin Reserve.

Nīkau Wi Neera, 23, the Te Whanganui-a-Tara Māori ward councillor who earns more than $100,000 a year, said the chance of owning a home in Wellington was “not achievable” — especially given a job that came up to public vote every three years. He is in a rental with four others.

Councillor Rebecca Matthews, left, a renter said housing in Wellington was unaffordable.

“It was a mission to find this place — I remember going to about 30 flat viewings and being turned down for all of them.

“Every viewing had single parents, new migrants, and retirees all competing with students for the same substandard housing.”

Fellow councillor Rebecca Matthews, from the Wharangi/Onslow Western ward also rented.

Wellington Central MP Tamatha Paul said even MPs were forced into ‘shoe boxes’ to live in Wellington.

“Owning or renting a home in Wellington city continues to be unaffordable,” she said

“When the District Plan comes back to us I want to see that we are enabling additional housing supply which is our biggest influence on future affordability.”

Geordie Rogers is campaigning to replace fellow renter Tamatha Paul in the upcoming Pukehīnau/Lambton ward by-election while the threat of eviction hangs over him. The landlord recently discovered the deck and garage were quake risks and was now looking at selling, he said.

“There probably isn’t going to be an end to renting. We are going to be renting a lot of our lives.”

Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter has owned a house in Berhampore since 2019 but put it down to having a two-income household and being “very lucky” — her family had equity thanks to buying an apartment in 2013 and being in the “right place at the right time”.

Paul said she was a renter by choice but said MP colleagues who got an accommodation allowance for staying in Wellington could only afford “tiny little shoe boxes”, which showed how unaffordable housing was in the capital. She did not get the allowance because she was based in Wellington.

Tenants Action Wellington organiser Anne Campbell said they grew up thinking they would eventually own a home but that was getting increasingly improbable.

“I fell it just gets harder because rents just continue going up,” they said.

According to Trade Me figures year-on-year to September, the capital’s median weekly rent rose 6.7% to $640 for a house.

All Wellington City councillors were asked about their housing situation. Of those who responded, Tim Brown owned a house with his wife, Sarah Free and Tony Randle owned their homes, John Apanowicz owned his off-grid eco house in Ohariu Valley, and Ray Chung built his house in Broadmeadows 25 years ago.

Trade Me Property sales director Gavin Lloyd said in October the number of rental listings continued dropping, keeping pressure on rents.

“This is creating a really tight market and means tenants will have to reach further into their pockets in the immediate term if they’re looking to move.”