Beacon

It seems like large cities world-wide are facing housing crises.

This article, from The Age, Victoria (http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/melbournes-housing-crisis-would-you-live-in-a-floating-apartment-20150323-1m0flc.html), offers 10 solutions to Melbourne’s housing crisis, which they describe as:

“... a menacing situation that is already shackling our aging and rapidly growing population’s ability to enjoy life in our sprawling metropolis. In essence, we have too many dog-box apartments in the CBD, too many massive new homes on the fringes and too many single dwellings on quarter-acre blocks in the middle suburbs.“

Sound familiar? It certainly sounds like Auckland at the moment.

The 10 solutions range from outside the box (floating homes) to ideas that have been tried and tested by other cities trying to solve their own housing crises.

Some of these ideas - such as community-based apartment blocks, dual public-private developments, repurposing existing buildings and adding new homes in old backyards - are well established solutions to create more housing in the cities on the itinerary for the upcoming medium density study tour.

 And that is exactly why we are organising a study tour to Vancouver, Seattle and Portland.  These cities face similar problems meeting housing demand with an ageing local population changing housing requirements and Asian migration driving population growth.  All three cities are expensive housing markets where delivering affordable housing is a real need. 

We’ve chosen these cities not only because they are facing similar issues to cities in New Zealand but also because they have been making great progress towards increasing density and improving access and affordability in ways that add to local places within existing city boundaries.  We visit real life examples of:

• Converting houses into several dwellings (secondary suites and strata titles)
• Adding additional units to existing sections (laneway houses and secondary dwellings)
• Including residential units alongside retail and other amenities in inner city developments
• Master-planned developments which include mixed use and affordable housing
• Pocket neighbourhoods and developing shared spaces such as gardens or living areas
• Transit oriented development
• Inner city, inner suburb and more suburban approaches

As well as visiting some clever exemplars, we have organised talks and tours with local experts to share their learnings and knowledge of financial and regulatory arrangements, development and design approaches, management and scalability. This combination of expertise, both onsite and in multi-sectoral meetings, proved a wonderful opportunity to ‘pick their brains’ and to make overseas connections on the last tour, and we’ve added a new city and some new people this time round. It’s a great opportunity to take ideas from overseas to apply to our own cities in New Zealand.

The tour covers the three cities in ten days from 20 - 31 July 2015 and the cost is $9500 +GST, excluding airfares. We are confirming seats now so get in quick if you would like to come!

We’re also holding three information evenings to give you a chance to hear more and ask questions.  Please come along and find out more:

• Auckland: 5pm, 14 April 2015, Boffa Miskell, Level 3, IBM Centre, 82 Wyndham Street
• Christchurch: 5pm, 23 April 2015, Boffa Miskell, Ground Floor, 4 Hazeldean Road
• Wellington: 4.30pm, 6 May 2015, Cement & Concrete Association, Level 8, 142 Featherston St

Light refreshments will be served so please RSVP for catering purposes to me:

 You can also read more of the places we visit in the latest itinerary http://www.beaconpathway.co.nz/further-research/article/study_tours