Letter from Brent Worthington

DRURY

April 2022

Well the Easter Bunny's been and gone and it's only eight weeks until the Winter Solstice-shortest day. Wow! The year's racing away on us again.

Variable market dynamics and a mixed bag of forces both at home and abroad continue to send tremors through our economy. Yet even these shifting goalposts offer opportunities for buyers and sellers alike in our residential marketplace, despite the doom and gloom commentary from mainstream media. You'll find several interesting articles in this month's publication that address this.

What continues to be extremely frustrating is the "lip service" Government and local Council pays to the escalating cost of new build residential property in New Zealand. They offer many reasons for the increasing costs without addressing their own contribution to the problem. Ever since the early 1990's Councils and the Government have been regularly and significantly increasing the cost of compliance with total disregard for you, the homeowner.

Up until the early 1990's local Council and the Government funded community facilities along with the services required for a residential subdivision, while the information required to get a Building Consent for a domestic dwelling amounted to nothing more than three or four drawings, some engineering detail and possibly some product specifications. Sadly, not anymore.

The developer of a residential subdivision now has to fund the installation of all services, footpaths, lighting, sewage, etc. and then upon completion hand ownership to the local Council. The developer also has to pay a Parks & Recreation levy which according to various Councils is utilised to help fund infrastructure like parks, community facilities, local roads, stormwater drainage, traffic management, etc, etc.

And this is without consideration to the costs already incurred by the developer to meet the requirements of the Resource Management Act and local Council Bylaws before getting the authority to proceed with the subdivision.

All too often we now see developers given the approval to proceed with a new residential subdivision while scant regard is shown by the Council or Government to the provision of public facilities, additional roading, schools, etc. to cope with the increased population the subdivision impacts on the existing community.

Whether building a new dwelling or making an addition to an existing one, the costs associated with getting a Building Consent, having the work "signed off" by a Council approved Building Inspector at the required stages of the build and then applying for a final inspection and Code of Compliance Certificate (CCC) now run into thousands and thousands of dollars.

This is without taking into consideration the time and money it takes to provide all the information now required by Council when initially lodging the minefield of applications required. Not to mention the extreme frustration, time-wasting and costs incurred dealing with what have become totally dysfunctional organisations.

Why do we have to pay for a Land Information Memorandum (LIM)? This is a document held by Council on your property. The very Council whose employees we pay as rate payers. The same goes for accessing your Property File.

One could write an encyclopedic novel on this subject however there's likely more than enough of an insight here for you to grasp the reality of how our Government and Councils continue to contribute significantly to the increased costs of residential land and dwellings.

Common sense suggests that if the bureaucracy was seriously interested in addressing the continually escalating cost of building in New Zealand they would commence by removing a lot of their charges and nonsensical compliance requirements.

As always, we trust you enjoy this month's publication.

Kind Regards,

BrentWorthington Principal LJ Hooker Drury &Rent Exchange Property Management T 029 294 7500