Twin-key apartments look tiny but meeting need

By most measures, 21sq m is a small living space. You could put 400 of these spaces within a standard rugby field. This week, it was reported developer DuVal is building 91 such studios within its new 14-storey Lakewood Plaza building in Manukau.

The units are possible — despite the Unitary Plan rules requiring studios to be at least 30sq m and one-bedroom apartments to be at least 45sq m — due to two criteria.

Firstly, the studios are being sold as half of a “twin-key” set-up, where two apartments are part of one title and connected through a door.

Buyers are able to purchase one 21sq m studio and one 32sq m one-bedroom apartment — each with kitchen and bathroom — for around $800,000.

The twin-key packages are marketed as either “high yield” investments, or a “home and income package” with a rental appraisal last year estimating buyers could rent the two for around $650 a week.

Secondly, the apartments had been consented before the 2016 size regulations were brought in by the former Manukau Council in 2013.

Architect Graeme Scott, while not involved with the development, could see both sides of the issue. It appears, he said, to be a blatant attempt to get around minimum size requirements but there is a strong need for affordable accommodation, and reducing size is one key way of achieving this.

The Auckland Unitary Plan was brought into being in 2016, at the time it was said to combat a rash of “shoebox” apartments sprouting up in the central city. The plan may have had the desired effect in promoting larger living spaces, although it is just as likely to be market forces at work.

Tiny apartments are myriad in much larger cities where land is at an even higher premium. Indeed, twin-key apartments are said to be especially popular as flexible living environments in SouthEast Asia. Statistics NZ has predicted Auckland’s population will grow by another million people in the next 30 years. However, Auckland Council believes most of the growth will be Aucklanders having children and migration from within NZ. Such people are neither likely to be familiar with, nor seeking out, tightly confined living spaces.

There are more issues to consider than square metres — just as, if not more, important. Weather tightness is one we’re all too familiar with, as well as efficient insulation and fire-proof cladding. Toxic mould presents more of a risk than a lack of distance between the walls.

Whether banks choose to take mortgages on such properties is a matter for the finance sector to consider — as is whether the properties sell simply a matter for the buyers to decide.

DuVal spokesman Troy Rashid pointed out good design and affordable costs were more important that “arbitrary” space requirements.

And with 142 of the 150 offered already sold before the Herald story, it’s clear that the market has already decided.