The Unconditional Blog

The impartial voice of the industry

 

Archive for the ‘Architecture & Construction’ Category

3

Ultimate lifestyle resort in the Bay of Islands

Posted on: September 20th, 2009 | Filed in Architecture & Construction, Buying / Selling a home

eagles-nestThis has to be one of New Zealand’s premier private resort retreats – Eagles Nest; and it’s for sale!

I try to avoid using the blog to showcase property, but sometime I feel that a property deserves the attention. This is just such a property. A property that can without question be called “one in a million”. A property NZ can be proud of – a great export earner as the majority of guest I suspect would be from overseas, many experiencing NZ for the first time – what an experience!

You will need more than a lotto win to secure this resort which comprises 5 separate villas. The property is nestled high above Russell and has some of the most spectacular views across the beautiful bays and inlets that make up the Bay of Islands.

There are not many times a property like this comes up for sale and to have it featured on the website is kind of special. The task of selling it will not be easy for the team at Browns Sotheby’s but with the significant international traffic to the website from the US, UK and Australia the property is sure to recieve extensive coverage.

22

Greater disclosure of leaky homes advocated

Posted on: August 24th, 2009 | Filed in Architecture & Construction

istock_000000248264xsmallA timely piece in today’s NZ Herald brings to light the advocacy of greater transparency of potential issues surrounding leaky homes. Steve Koerber – an agent with Barfoot & Thompson shares his view that greater information should be provided to protect wouldbe purchasers, especially new immigrants.

In principle more transparency is to be championed, however identification of leaky homes and equally identification of non-leaky homes is not an exact science by any means.

Whilst the technology of detection has improved enormously over the past few years; without wholesale removal of cladding materials the extent of damage cannot be accessed. In fact the use of the term leaky homes is a degree of a misnomer – the fact is the leaking or egress of water is not in of itself the problem (houses have had leaks for years), it is the inadequate ventilation and appropriateness of construction materials and systems to protect buildings which ultimately lead to the structural damage to properties which is the problem.

As to the role of agents highlighting the impact of “leaky homes” – it is only recently that a few properties have been marketed as being leaky homes and are deliberately targeted to developers looking to take on such a project. Clearly every buyer wants to know for certain that the house they are proposing to buy is not a leaky home, however real estate agents act as selling agents for the seller and whilst they will always seek the most complete information on a property they can, they are not building inspectors, nor surveyors and therefore cannot be expected to provide any form of cast iron guarantee on a property beyond what the owner of the property shares with them.

Just as car buyers will judge the value of a pre-purchase inspection so should it be with a property.

A quick search on the website today reveals that there are only 13 listings that use the keyword of “leaky home” from amongst the 51,176 homes and lifestyle properties that are being marketed as for sale.

Of these 13, seven are properties with leaky home issues identified: a 4 bedroom house in Coastville, two townhouses in Henderson Valley, another townhouse in Mt Eden, a 3 bedroom townhouse in Mangere, a 4 bedroom property in Birkenhead described as “Stylish leaky home” and a 3 bedroom apartment in Auckland city.

On the other hand there are 6 properties which all claim to be in one form or another not likely to be prone to “leaky home” syndrome.

Properties listed on realestate.co.nz marketed as unlikely to be impacted by leaky home syndrome

Whilst the industry and the government may wish to see more transparency to provide protection to consumers on an issues such as this, it is very difficult and potentially very risky to make hard and fast statements one way or another. The best solution as advocated by Steve Koerber may be the implementation of a regulated inspection report for properties built since 1991.

0

Interest in residential sections on the rise

Posted on: August 18th, 2009 | Filed in Architecture & Construction, Buying / Selling a home

The news of the real estate market today seems to have centred around residential sections.

Harcourts CEO Bryan Thomson said “anecdotal feedback from around the real estate group indicated the level of buyer interest in residential sections had risen notably in recent months, in part because of a shortage of houses for sale“.

Well I can comfirm that supporting anecdotal feedback is hard facts – the statistics from the website of realestate.co.nz confirm there has been a lift in interest in residential sections. Counter to seasonal slowing of buyer interest the viewings for these sections has picked up since the beginning of April, over the past 6 weeks well over 6,000 unique visitors have been actively reviewing and researching sections.

Residential sections web traffic realestate.co.nz Aug 09

The key thing to consider in regard to sections is that almost every one of those unique visitors is reviewing the content of the listings with an serious interest as the content (unlike homes for sale) is not the most inspiring as sections are more about what the land holds for the future, than what it looks like today.

queenstown-section-aug-09One extreme exception to this rule is this amazing section I came across on the edge of Lake Wakatipu beside Queenstown, for here if you have a cool $6,000,000 you can build what could be the ultimate property in a world class location. It may only be just under 3 hectares (of course that is a staggering $2m per hectare or around $203 per square metre!) but what a location, what a view!!

11

Warm up New Zealand .. heat smart

Posted on: June 18th, 2009 | Filed in Architecture & Construction

Home insultion New Zealand government grants to insulate your homeThe government today officially launched the insulation and heating scheme announced in the budget last month. This initiative is designed to address a real issue which plagues NZ homes – inadequate insulation.

The undeniable fact is that a vast number of NZ homes are inadequately insulated leading to serous health impacts as well as wasted energy. Personally having been brought up in the UK and having lived in a country like Sweden I was staggered when I moved to NZ to see so many homes (almost all in the Auckland region) with no fitted heated system.

People always assume that if you live in a country like Sweden you must be every hardy to cope with sub-zero temperatures for months of the year – the reality is they are not as hardy as NZ’ers, they have houses that are super insulated coupled with true central heating. Every house, every office, every school, every factory is beautifully heated – the living conditions are excellent.

It begs the question why should NZ make excuses and have to put up with cold houses. The health advisors say that an ideal living room temperature is 18 degrees yet on average in NZ such rooms in winter barely reach 16 degrees.

So now with a $323m investment over 4 years the government is aiming to bring about change. The grant of up to $1,800 for a combination of insultion (ceiling and underfloor) and clean heating will apply for any home built before 2000. The intention is to see over the 4 years 180,000 homes insulted – that compares with only 60,000 homes insulated over the past 18 years.

The grants are not income related which means all the NZ housing stock will benefit, and potentially in 4 years time over half a million kiwis will be living in better insulated homes.

Creating a truly warm living environment goes far beyond just insulating the roof and underfloor, good design can play a large part; as with  double glazing, adequate draft preventions and more efficient heating systems, and in older houses – wall insulation. However any improvement in insulation is to be encouraged.

Applications for these grants need to be made through service providers in your area – ful details on this Ecca website. Take advantage because having lived in beautifully insulated homes, the benefits it brings are immeasurable.

5

Emerging concern over supply of new homes as consents plummet

Posted on: March 2nd, 2009 | Filed in Architecture & Construction, Property Investing, Real Estate Industry

The economic slowdown is firmly applying the brakes to the broad property market with the latest stats of building consents mirroring the record lows experienced in the real estate market.

The January stats show just 812 consented dwellings – the lowest since record began 34 years ago, with real estate sales in January at 3,706 the lowest since the early 90’s.

Whilst the median price for property is declining it is interesting to see that the average price of residential construction is actually increasing. Over the 9 month period from May 2008 to January 2009 the average value of residential consents rose from $310,000 to $393,000. Seen on this graph below the average value of consented residential construction on a 3 month moving average (red line) has now intersected with the average sales price of residential property again measured on a 3 month moving average basis (blue line).

NZ new home consents and property sales at Jan 09

This intersection is the first since early 2002 and highlights a couple of interesting trends.

  1. The very low level of new consents contain virtually no apartment developments so prevalent through the past decade which held consent values down.
  2. The market for new builds is maintained through more top end custom designed properties which is spiking the average, albeit from a low base of number of consents.

A consequence of this as highlight in the NBR is the very real possibility that such a drastic cut in new builds especially at the bottom end of the market generally serviced by group home builders could lead to a very real shortage of property with consequential impact on the supply side of the market.

And just before the howls begin from those that think we don’t need any more houses as the plane queue up to take kiwi’s to Australia it is worth reviewing the latest report from Statistics NZ which shows that despite the net record exodus to Australia of 35,400 in the 12 months to January 2009, the overall net migration was positive to the tune of 4,500 in the past year.

0

Building consents data provides valuable insight into property market trends

Posted on: December 9th, 2008 | Filed in Architecture & Construction, Buying / Selling a home

The latest headlines concerning the new homes market certainly echo the general sentiment of the economy – “Home Construction Slips” as reported highlights a 16 year low for new dwelling consents, just 1,173 issued in October – a far cry from the 2,377 in October 2006.

Equally “Architects say building industry on a knife edge” highlights the prospects for future consents in the coming year which are expected to remain depressed as 70% of those surveyed in the profession believing the industry will worsen in the next year with no bright outlook until 2010 or 2011.

The overall property market is intertwined with new builds, property transactions as well as renovations & alterations, and there is no doubt that everyone is well aware that these industries are collectively facing some major challenges as what has been a boom for the past 7 years has very quickly gone into reverse. As ever the future is unknown – yet is exactly what everyone wants to know!

To shed some light onto this matter I have analysed some historic data to examine this sector of the economy which between new builds and re-sale accounts for over $32 billion per annum (even in today’s depressed climate). Analysing the monthly data of residential consents and property sales since the beginning of 2002 shows some key trends these are presented in the graphs below:

Observing the trend of residential consents issues on a moving annual total basis (red line – left hand axis) against residential property sales (blue line – right hand axis) highlights the correlation of peaks and troughs, with the key period of Jan 2004 to Sep 2005 when the lines diverged driven in part by significant apartment developments.

The current period since June of 2007 has seen the very fast market correction of property sales matched to a slower reaction from the building industry to the credit crisis as the pipelining effect takes longer to flow through the system. The key numbers in this graph are the peak to current level of property sales – 120,000 to now 60,000 (not as yet called a trough!) and the current level of consents annualised at 20,000 from the peak of nearly 33,000 in June 2004.

The feedback from most economists is the fact that projected population growth a level of new builds of around 23,000 is what is required to sustain demand in the long term (Berl report of 2007 on The Economic Impact of Immigration on Housing in NZ speaks to a level of 23,600 per annum).

Matched against the prior graphs perspective of volume of consents and sales is this representation of the value of transactions and consents issued on a moving annual basis.

The most striking aspect is the extreme view of growth and subsequent slide of both the value of aggregated sales and consents issued. The former (blue line – right hand axis) showing again a faster slide from the peak of residential sales in value terms at the 12 months to June 2007 at $41 billion to the current level of $25 billion in the 12 months to October – an overall time period of just 16 months. The value of consents (red line – left hand axis) shows a slide in value from the peak through 2007 at around $8 billion per annum, already slipping through $6.5 billion.

The final analysis of this data is the average property price matched to average consent value.

Here the graph exhibits a clear parallel of trend albeit with a divergence of average value to transaction sale whereby in 2003 the gap was around $40,000 climbing in 2005 to $70,000 before hitting a peak in late 2007 at $120,000. The subsequent slide in this differential is shown by the graph below for the period of the last 4 months to October when average selling price has come back nearly $30,000 and average consent value has actually risen by $30,000.

6

UK migrants to NZ – a good knowledge of local building issues is vital

Posted on: August 7th, 2008 | Filed in Architecture & Construction, Buying / Selling a home

Only last month we had the Dutch reporting on how our houses were so cheap and now this month we have an article in the respected UK Guardian newspaper telling prospective migrants to be wary of buying houses in NZ. On the one hand such profile is encouraging, clearly with economic and social issues in the UK, NZ is attracting attention for people looking for a new life; however more accurate reporting of facts would help as this UK article has some significant inaccuracies.

I therefore thought it would be beneficial for UK readers to get some clarity on specifics raised in the article:

  1. “The market is certainly going through a difficult stage. In the past three years interest rates have risen by 3%, the price of petrol has doubled and inflation is bordering 4%, but people’s salaries have not kept up with inflation” – the first three facts are correct and reflect most countries, but to say salaries have not kept pace with inflation is not true.
  2. “New Zealand is currently plagued with a unique phenomenon called leaky homes” – I think a plague would be significantly overstating the facts – there are a large number of homes impacted to a greater or lesser degree in some areas of the country, if they amounted to 10,000 I would be surprised – that would be around 1% of all homes, hardly a plague. Also leaky homes are not a unique phenomenon, the Canadians in British Columbia experienced such an issue in the 90’s.
  3. “The problem (of leaky homes) is down to the architects, builders and councils – and also because the forestry groups promote untreated pine and the Building Industry Authority mistakenly approves it.” – untreated pine was used up until 2003, since then changes to Building Industry regulations have made treated pine mandatory. In additon a raft of other stringent regulations concerning weather tightness have been implemented as well as new Building Act.
  4. “It’s important to check what materials were used in the construction of the house. Look out for exterior walls made of single-layered bricks supported by a wooden frame. Also, while wooden weatherboards were once common they have now been replaced by cheaper alternatives. These are fibre or cement sheeting, mostly known as Fibrolite, Hardiplank or monolithic cladding. (Hardiplank is known to have contributed to the leaky homes syndrome.) Check for roofs made of galvanised steel and tiles of bitumen, pebble or cement. These materials, while saving on cost of construction, often compromise the durability of these houses”. This is a bit of a muddle, brick veneer on a timber frame is very common form of NZ construction of single level homes, built to design specifications they should provide no problems at all, in fact many UK homes are brick veneer (double brick) on a timber frame.
    Timber weather boards are still used, however the new form of fibre cement board under the brand of Linear are highly durable and not just a cheaper alternative. This form of weatherboard is a recent development. Fibrolite, Hardiplank and other monolithic cladding are used much less these days than in they were in the 90’s.
    A vast number of NZ homes have galvanised steel roofs, this is a part of NZ and have been for many decades, equally bitumen or concrete roof tiles, all of these options if well maintained provide a very durable system.
  5. “That’s not all. In New Zealand, a lot of insurance policies don’t cover termite damage or structural problems, making repairs expensive” – we don’t have termites in NZ, we have bora which can be a danger. As for insurance I think you would not find any significant difference between NZ and UK.

Whilst I don’t think the article was designed to be alarmist, it could have been interpreted that way, the best advice which I am sure any prospective buyer would do, whether a local buyer of new migrant is to get a detailed building inspection report, after all a $1,000 report is a small price to pay when making an investment of $400,000.

0

NZ eco-development demonstrates the business value of energy efficiency

Posted on: June 24th, 2008 | Filed in Architecture & Construction, Green

Earlier this month I wrote a post titled “Eco design and speedy construction could deliver sustainable and affordable housing” – in it I made this statement:

It seems from this UK project that this government and the community’s aspiration to meet the ideals of affordable housing; eco-friendly construction as well as building communities could be met which such a blue-print development – all we need is a NZ developer to step up.

Well it seems that one developer has taken me at my word! – Kensington Properties Ltd.

Kensington Park is a $400 million development of 40 acres comprising over 700 properties – currently under construction at Orewa, north of Auckland.

There are a couple of very interesting aspects to the development that caught my eye – primarily the focus on energy efficiency and secondly the consumer demand.

In regard to energy efficiency the claim is that the electricity bills for owners could be cut by more than half in a project aimed at slashing home power costs. Patrick Fontein, Managing Director of Kensington Properties and Chairman of the New Zealand Green Building Council, told me that houses which would usually cost $2,000 a year to run should cost only $800, according to the projections provided by Right House, the energy efficiency advisory service set up by the state-owned energy company Meridian Energy.

Right House has been working on the project for a year, fine-tuning the eco-friendly aspects. Some of the more commonly overlooked aspects when planning a new home are the very things that can have the most impact on our comfort and health. It’s not just about saving money on power. Home heating, water heating, energy efficiency and the control of the interior environment are treated as integral parts of the Kensington Park building process.

For example floor slabs which the houses stand on will be wrapped to insulate them against heat gains and losses. The houses will be oriented on their sites for maximum energy efficiency and have water-heating solar panels installed on each roof. Low-energy heat pumps will be installed for maximum heating and energy savings. Windows will be double-glazed to minimise heat transfer. All storm-water will be treated on the site via a lake and weir system which separates sediments. Stormwater will also be recycled and used to irrigate gardens in public areas.

Kensington Park NZ It is very interesting to note the financial decisions taken by Kensington Properties. They concede that there is an additional construction cost for delivering this standard of energy efficiency and eco-friendly design, but they consider the purchaser interest alone as proof that it’s well worth it. By their calculations a one-off house with these features would cost $50,000 extra, however they have driven this cost down to just $30,000 extra per home to construct because their applying scale factors by applying their approach to all of the houses at once.

Kensington Park Asia Pacific Property Awards 2008This offer of efficiency, environmental consideration and master plan design that focuses on a true community is the reason behind the fact that even though real estate sales are sluggish at best at the moment the interest level of buyers remains strong for these new houses at Kensington Park.

To add to this encouraging story is the fact that the development has been awarded the CNBC Asia Pacific Property Award for Best Overall Development, Best Property Marketing and Best Architecture. This is believed to be the only time a NZ company has won this award – beating stiff competition from Australia, China, India, Thailand and Japan.

3

Eco design and speedy construction could deliver sustainable and affordable housing

Posted on: June 7th, 2008 | Filed in Architecture & Construction

A new development outside of Milton Keynes in the UK is featured in an article in this month’s edition of Wired magazine. Oxley Woods is being built by George Wimpey UK – one of the largest UK building firms. This development of 145 eco-friendly homes has been designed around a community environment with the combined benefits of environmentally sustainable construction and affordable housing.

The houses ranging from 2 to 5 bedrooms and feature the award winning design of the UK government’s scheme to build a quality house for £60,000 ($150,000). The fundamental component of the success of the design and quality of the build lies in the fact that most of the house is constructed off-site and then constructed on site in a day and a half (excluding services and other finishing work which adds another 4 weeks).

The key to the eco design is a solar powered ventilation system which provide a healthy home through a concept called at EcoHat which is part of the roof design.

There is much that could be adopted in NZ from such a design and development, as previously posted back in January – the modular construction form of commercial construction can drive efficiency of construction and therefore drive out costs. Equally building the panels off-site makes for a faster more efficient construction as well as enabling the most environmentally considerate construction materials and insulation.

A wonderful example of this off-site “kitset” house is the German house builder Huf which was showcased on the excellent Grand Design series on the Living Channel. These striking houses are high end but as the programme profiled, everything right down to electrical, plumbing and wall coverings are part of the wall panel construction undertaken in the factory to incredible tolerances before being delivered to site.

It seems from this UK project that this government and the community’s aspiration to meet the ideals of affordable housing; eco-friendly construction as well as building communities could be met which such a blue-print development – all we need is a NZ developer to step up.

5

Auckland – key pointers to future growth and real estate opportunity

Posted on: April 23rd, 2008 | Filed in Architecture & Construction, Media commmentary, Regional News

The front page of the NZ Herald yesterday highlighted some telling indications of future sustainable drivers of the Auckland and NZ real estate market. For whilst we are in the midst of a seriously stalling property market, you have to look to the future to see where this market may be 5 years from now.

Proposed Westfield Tower downtown Auckland NZ HeraldThe lead article featured the artists impression of the proposed 41 storey office and retail development on the Downtown Shopping centre. This development coupled with the 67 storey apartment tower at the Elliot are being proposed by developers who are not novices to such developments. They are making proposals having spent many thousands of man hours and potentially millions of dollars researching the key drivers of demand in the commercial and residential market over the next 10 to 20 years – their verdict is clear. Auckland is growing and will continue to grow, as a consequence it will need places for people to work and places for people to live.

Adding to this list of new progressive looking developments is the latest proposal for a harbour tunnel to provide the solution which is so desperately needed, to solve the traffic issues of Auckland. This proposal following hard-on-the-heels of similar proposals foretell the likelihood of a second harbour crossing actually being built in our lifetimes. Again the sustainable drivers of a growing population and growing economy in the longer term more than justify this likely multi-billion dollar investment.

Alex Swney Heart of the cityFurther adding to these future developments was the excellent piece penned by Alex Swney celebrating the completion of the 5 year refurbishment of Queen Street as the epicenter of Auckland’s retail and commercial heart. As CEO of Heart of the City and passionate Aucklander (as well as mayoral candidate) Alex has admirably championed the vibrancy and vitality of this precinct and made what was once a dark and dull “bitty” shopping and working environment into a bright and interesting metropolis. The proof to this regeneration and vibrancy as Alex says is best reflected when you:

“..talk to any realtor and they will tell you of the heightened level of interest from major international brands to secure Queen St space as it boasts pedestrian counts up to 10 times higher than any other high street in the country, underpinned by 80,000 workers, 70,000 students and 20,000 residents.”

As Alex says Auckland is growing up, it is no longer the difficult adolescent, highly self conscious; it can mix with the best in the world as a center of business and lifestyle.

In terms of the assessing the future have a look at the initiative set up by the regional council entitled “Auckland Plus” designed to articulate the business proposition for Auckland. This is the showcase of how Auckland can and does promote itself in the business of cities fighting to attract talent, capital and business to grow the future economic wealth of this city and this country – a highly competitive arena in which to compete.

The future of NZ is inextricably tied to the future of Auckland and from these developments we can start to see the other side of this current economic and real estate slump, a side that is based on sustainable drivers of economic growth which always have a flow on effect to real estate.

Page 1 of 212»