Thursday news in brief

Life is busy and it’s easy to miss some of the stories that hit the news. So here’s a brief rundown of some of the stories that might have slipped by you this week…

Thursday, August 3rd 2017, 7:00AM

by The Landlord

Auckland hotspots: the long term winners

Six of the top twenty Auckland suburbs featured in Barfoot & Thompson’s latest hot growth spots list have long term form and saw the greatest percentage sales price growth since 2012 and 2007.

While Beachlands took out the top spot for the first half of 2017 with 64% growth in median sales price, followed by Favona (up 37%) and Parnell (up 34%), it was Takapuna which emerged as the biggest long term growth star.

The North Shore beach suburb came in at sixth on the current list, but it had the third-highest growth for the five years since 2012 and was the leading performer in the decade since 2007. It saw a 197% increase in median sales price over 10 years.

The other stand-out long term performers over both the five and 10 year periods were Favona (up 146%), Milford (up 167%), Glen Innes (up 156%), Pakuranga (up 119%), and Mt Wellington (up 139%).

Barfoot & Thompson managing director Peter Thompson said the first half of 2017 has seen Auckland sales prices begin to mellow after some years of strong growth. “This scenario, rather than a rapid fall, is a good outcome for both vendors and buyers.”

Read more: Top 20 Super City hotspots

The great divide: landlords vs renters

Landlords’ and renters’ conflicting views on the condition of New Zealand’s rental accommodation dominate the findings of the latest HRV-AUT State of the Home Survey.

While 66% of renters surveyed said their landlord either didn’t respond or failed to fix a problem they brought to their attention, 75% of landlords said they fixed problems as soon as possible. Fixing damage and doing repairs was the top priority for 50% of landlords, as compared to heating and ventilation (9%) and addressing mould and dampness (4%).

AUT Professor of Sociology Charles Crothers said this disparity carried through to how renters and landlords rated their relationship with each other. Nearly 90% of landlords said their relationship with their tenants was good or excellent but tenants took a less favourable view.

“You would expect landlords to say their properties are up to scratch and everything is rosy with their tenants. But the reality is many people living in properties say this is not the case with more than a quarter of tenants having complained to landlords about their homes being cold, damp and mouldy.”

Council to review Auckland SHAs

Auckland Council’s Planning Committee has requested a review of all Special Housing Areas (SHAs) to try and establish how many affordable houses have been built following ongoing controversy over the issue.

Under the Auckland Housing Accord, 39,000 dwellings were consented within the three year period of the Accord. But, to date, just 3,105 dwellings have been built within the SHAs – and it is unclear how many of those qualify as affordable.

Planning Committee chair Chris Darby said the Accord had significantly increased land supply for development. “But it lacked affordability targets, had affordability criteria which made it hard to collect data and lacked requirements for developers to build houses once an SHA applied to their land.”

It was now time to move forward to get on top of affordability issues, he said. “We don’t build houses; consenting is our business but Aucklanders can’t live in consents. So we have a responsibility to find ways to convert these into actual homes for people to live in.”

Read more: Affordability measures proves more houses needed

Builders’ breaches prompt serious disciplinary action

Negligent and incompetent practices have seen the Building Practitioners Board take serious action against two Licensed Building Practitioners (LBP), cancelling the licence of one and handing down fines to the other.

Auckland-based LBP Feroz Ali was fined $5,000 for constructing trusses from uncertified building materials rather than using manufactured trusses as specified by the building consent. While Ali’s offending was at the higher end of the scale, his licence had already been cancelled for unrelated reasons.

Waikato LBP Ah Sui Ah Sui had his licence cancelled for working in a negligent and incompetent manner and failing to comply with a building consent and provide a record of work. He didn’t ensure building plans were followed and was not sufficiently familiar with modern building practices.

Registrar of Building Practitioner Licensing Paul Hobbs said the cases sent a clear message to LBPs nationwide that they must meet their contractual and regulatory obligations and that failure to do so would lead to them being held to account by the Board.

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