Housing crisis: is the answer in our hands?

This time last year I was living in the city in an old villa on a section that was so small we were almost close enough to reach out and touch our neighbours. We all got along very well but I’m not sure the friendship would have survived one of them deciding to build a second storey that peered over the fence into our backyard or vice-versa.

Now we’re living on a couple of hectares in the country and there are different reasons to worry about our fence line, where a neighbour has planted a row of pine trees on the boundary. It’s more than a football field away but one day they are going to block our stunning view of the mountains. I’m already mourning the loss; seeing the mountains glow at sunset has been one of the special things about our new house this summer.

I know I’ve got no grounds to complain; I’m living in the countryside after all, and I’m not entitled to a view. But it is human nature not to want to lose something you value.

And this, in a nutshell, is why we can’t solely blame the Resource Management Act for New Zealand’s housing affordability crisis. The RMA is undoubtedly part of the problem but it didn’t become so on its own; it is because of people like me, homeowners with skin in the game, who worry about things that contribute to their enjoyment of a home – privacy, sun, views and noise, for instance. That’s why affordable housing developments in established surburbs seem guaranteed to raise temperatures. But I can understand why people who’ve been locked out of the market get so angry about homeowners pulling up the ladder behind them by making it harder for others to enjoy what they have.

I hasten to add that I’ve never objected to a development or building and my experience of the RMA and Building Act has been as someone involved on the other side of the process.

The first involved extending our former house in Petone; the second when we relocated a house to a paddock in the country. In contrast to all the nightmare stories we had heard, both processes were relatively straightforward and the council staff couldn’t have been more helpful.

But we were lucky; I know of people who’ve tussled with their local council over what colour they’re allowed to paint their house, or the permitted style of garage door.

Another friend had their bach delayed for more than a year because a neighbour (someone who had got too used to thinking of the empty section next door as their own) took his objections all the way to the Environment Court.

Successive Governments have promised to scrap the RMA but the reason it’s never happened is because housing is emotive. Everyone wants to fix the housing crisis but most baulk at the solution being implemented over their back fence.

Is there another way? Kelly Dennett’s investigation of affordable, relocatable homes this week offers one practical solution. But she also found there are many obstacles to their widespread takeup and it doesn’t fix soaring land prices.

It is one way the Government could make a difference – but is it prepared to grab the opportunity?

I can understand why people who’ve been locked out of the market get so angry about homeowners pulling up the ladder behind them by making it harder for others to enjoy what they have.