Wellington needs more homes and more bang for housing buck

Monday, 1 January 2024

Thomas Nash is a Regional Councillor for Pōneke Wellington and chairs the Regional Council’s Transport Committee.

OPINION: As a regional councillor elected by Wellingtonians, it’s my job to promote the city and help it thrive and continue to contribute to the region and the country.

That’s mostly an easy job because Wellington has such a lot going for it. It’s a vibrant, fun and friendly city set in a stunning natural harbour and coastal environment, with beautiful green spaces on our doorstep.

Somewhat uniquely, Wellington is also truly a nature capital, with biodiversity actually on the increase. Kākā, nationally a threatened species, are thriving in the city and, thanks to Capital Kiwi, Wellington saw its first kiwi born outside captivity in November.

Wellington is a fantastic city.

On one crucial measure though, we are failing. Wellington’s housing is letting us down. It’s often poor quality, there’s not enough of it and too much of what is being built doesn’t make the best use of our public infrastructure and transport dollars.

We need way more homes in Wellington. Many people here are very poorly housed. We also need more housing to attract workers to Wellington’s brilliant technology, gaming and creative business sectors.

Wellington is in direct competition for talent with Australian cities on this front. If you look at what you can get for your weekly rent payment in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney compared to Wellington, we can’t compete.

Those cities are also attracting investment, building more housing, building up and doing it well, while Wellington is falling behind.

At this point there’s a common refrain that, actually, people want to live outside the city with a garden. Yes, many do, but many want to live close to the city where they can walk, bike or take a quick bus to work. Let’s give people that option by facilitating more apartments, more mid-rise buildings with courtyards, more terraced houses.

This higher density housing can be built to high quality standards with green spaces like it is in the other cities competing with us in Australasia. If we set the conditions for this urban development, it will happen and people will embrace it. The proof of this is Te Aro, where many thousands more people are now living in apartments than they were 20 years ago.

The key question here is bang for buck. Housing requires infrastructure, and every dollar we spend on infrastructure or transport should be assessed for how much housing it facilitates. What kind of housing gets us the best bang for buck on water infrastructure, transport, electricity? What kind of housing gets us the best bang for buck for the environment, for healthy freshwater and biodiversity?

The answer is higher density housing within the existing urban footprint.

Renewing existing pipes is cheaper per dwelling than building new pipes outside the city - especially when we need to replace our existing pipes anyway! The same goes for electricity, where we need to increase capacity for all the electric charging we’ll be doing.

Transport spending is vastly more economically rational when people are given the chance to live closer to where they work.

In cities, public transport wins hands down on bang for buck because it has such massively higher carrying capacity than private motor vehicles do, even more so once public road space is more rationally allocated for public bus lanes rather than private parking.

It’s just not possible to improve freshwater and biodiversity by building over the green spaces outside Wellington’s urban area. So not only is prioritising that development economically irrational for the public infrastructure and transport purse, it undermines the natural environment that adds so much value to Wellington.

If rates are the key concern, ask yourself what type of housing keeps the rates down. The answer is higher density housing inside the existing urban footprint.

More dwellings mean more people contributing to the rates, spreading the load for everyone.

Research by Sense Partners in Wellington on the net fiscal impact of a new dwelling by density clearly shows that new homes outside the urban area drive council rates higher, while new homes within the existing urban area have a downward impact on rates.

So what’s ahead on this? The District Plan that Wellington City Council will finalise next year is very important. We absolutely must enable more land for more dwellings in the city.

The Future Development Strategy - a 30-year regional spatial plan being developed with councils, iwi and central government - is also crucial in determining where we want new housing.

Likewise, our new Government’s priorities for transport and infrastructure investments will be make or break for our region and we need to construct a sensible deal together as regional, city and central government.

The Regional Council has a major stake in housing and urban development. Along with our role on the Future Development Strategy and regional spatial planning, we have our wider planning tools, our public transport investments, our responsibility for freshwater health and our role in reducing regional emissions and preparing communities for climate change.

The new Government’s decision not to fund the light rail for which Wellington’s election outcomes consistently signal support is not great news for serious new housing investment in Wellington.

Fortunately the new Government seems open to going big on buses. A scaled-up bus network, including express routes along the waterfront quays, should keep us going for the next few years until national politics allows for the mass transit our local councils support.

In the meantime, Wellington needs to give certainty to the construction and infrastructure sectors which are looking to invest in higher density housing.

We need to show we’re serious about providing the infrastructure that enables this kind of urban development. We need to give confidence to the talented, creative people who have a choice of city that Wellington will welcome them.

If we deliver the built environment to match our stunning natural environment then Wellington can truly be a thriving world class city, a nature capital, an economic powerhouse and a city with housing to be proud of.