Housing

Like many areas in New Zealand the Kāpiti Coast District is experiencing increasing demand for housing and pressure on its public housing services.

The issues | Housing continuum | Our role | Next steps | Our progress 

The issue

In Kāpiti this demand is being driven in part by improving transport infrastructure, strong population growth and a strong national property market.

Kāpiti is severely under serviced by emergency, social and transitional housing options. Currently there are approximately 200 social housing units across the district managed by central government and community housing providers. Council also owns and manages 118 housing units in 10 locations for qualifying older persons.

The need for social housing, particularly in the wake of COVID-19, far out paces the supply. There has been an approximate 50% increase in the number of people housed in emergency accommodation since the beginning of the pandemic.

At the end of 2020, there were 165 people or families on the waiting list for social housing in Kāpiti. There is minimal social and affordable housing stock currently available in Kāpiti.

House values have also risen rapidly across the Kāpiti Coast district in the last three years by an average of 29.1% according to a revaluation by Quotable Value (QV) in October 2020. The average house price in Kāpiti is now $711,465, up from $541,000 in 2017.

According to data from Trade Me in 2020, the Wellington region is the most expensive rental market in the country and the region’s supply does not meet the demand. Kāpiti saw a 16 per cent rise in enquiries for rental properties via Trade Me when compared to the year before.

With many New Zealanders returning home because if the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for both private rentals and ownership is expected to remain high nationally in the short term.

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The housing continuum

Affordable housing is getting harder to find for many in our community. The housing continuum helps us better understand the challenges we face and the range of housing types required to meet the needs of different people at different times.

The housing continuum illustrates the pathway from homelessness and emergency accommodation on the far left through assisted rental or ownership, to private renting and ownership options in the property market.

Graphic credit: The Property Group’s Housing Assessment Report, page 12.

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Our role in increasing housing supply and encouraging affordable

One of our core long term goals is a resilient community that has support for basic needs and feels safe and connected. Housing plays a key role in trying to achieve this.

The key issues a housing programme needs to address are:

• Investigate ways to increase the supply of public housing.
• Improve the quality of existing public housing.
• Encourage take up of existing development capacity.
• Improve the availability of emergency and transitional housing.

These issues have been identified through The Property Group (TPG) Assessment and the resulting recommendations are largely consistent with Kāpiti Coast Communities Housing Taskforce report. In many cases the TPG Assessment has developed actions which will respond to the recommendations made in the Taskforce Report.

Most of these are things with Council doesn’t have direct responsibility for but can play an advocacy role.  We will look for opportunities to influence the level and pace of change.

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Next steps

In April 2020 elected members agreed to establish a dedicated housing programme based on the 14 recommended actions sitting under the key issues of the Property Group Assessment. Since then, initial work on these actions have been underway. 

We are looking to increase current level of resource to enable the actions to be progressed more quickly.

As one of the initial actions Council is undertaking a Housing and Social Needs Assessment to identify an accurate picture of current and emerging housing and social needs.  This will help establish a robust information base to support future discussions with Government and enable planning by Council and stakeholders to address the gaps in supply across the housing continuum.

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Our progress to date

Progress to date (as at January 2021):

• Undertake an audit of Councils existing residential land holdings to determine redevelopment potential and improvements needed.
  •   An initial audit has been completed and the outcomes reported to the Senior Leadership Team.
    
    
• Investigate the suitability of other land owned to support housing developments, giving greater weight to the use of Council land for housing.
  • An initial audit to identify suitable properties has been undertaken. For suitable properties, a yield analysis and high level commercial feasibility has been prepared for residential development.
  • A funding application for development of one particularly promising site was submitted to the Crown Infrastructure Partners in early 2020 and discussion with housing sector stakeholders have commenced to understand appetite for partnerships.
  • Unfortunately, this funding application was unsuccessful and Council is exploring progressing this opportunity with other parties.
    
    
• Engage with local iwi to determine how Council can support and enhance the capacity of Maori housing providers through opportunities for development partnerships on Maori owned-land and other land.
  • Council are working with iwi on the development of the housing work programme. Iwi have been invited to help shape the approach to a proposed housing needs and social impact assessment.
  • Council have met with Te Puni Korkiri (TPK) to discuss the approach to supporting local iwi in the housing space. TPK are able to fund iwi with housing feasibility projects. Staff have offered to work alongside TPK and iwi to support the development of housing on Māori land.
  • Council have also met with Te Kāhui Kāinga Ora (MHUD Māori team) to discuss housing provision and funding in Kāpiti. Funding from Te Kāhui Kāinga Ora is available to support iwi’s capability and capacity to be a partner in housing work programmes.
    
    
• Identify partnerships opportunities with the public housing sector.
  • Council have met with a range of organisations to discuss establishing a housing programme including Salvation Army, Wellington City Mission, DWELL, Wesley Community Action, Mary’s Guest House, Light House, Impact Church, Paekakariki Housing Trust, Electra, MSD, Mash Trust, Kapiti Welcome Trust, Community Housing Aotearoa.
  • Council has, and continues to, facilitate conversations and connections with developers to promote the development of housing in Kāpiti.
    
    
• Establish a working group with the local housing sector, including CHP to support this industry to provide quality housing.
  • Council continues to support connections between CHPS and other with interests in social housing.
  • Feedback from Community Housing Providers (CHPS) and other organisations is that a working group is not needed at this stage of establishing a housing programme but there is appetite from these groups be involved in a proposed housing need and social impact assessment.
    
    
• Identify suitable land or other land through Council or its partnerships that maybe available for temporary relocatable housing.
  • Following and assessment, no Council land has been identified that can be used for temporary relocatable housing.
  • Council are in discussion with a number of government agencies about surplus land owned in the Kāpiti District that might be suitable for temporary relocatable housing.

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