Heading to the hills
Wellingtonians flee crazy housingmarket Thanks to a white-hot housing market, soaring rents and Covid-inspired changes to the way we work, an increasing number of Wellington refugees are seeking exile in Levin, Carterton and elsewhere, write and Rachel Mo
It’s easy to scoff at Horowhenua District Mayor Bernie Wanden’s sales pitch for Levin: ‘‘Still close to Wellington and offers a heck of a lot more.’’
But before you choke on that turmeric chai latte, consider these two numbers: 50 and 430,000.
Fifty is the number of minutes it could take you to travel between Levin and the capital in the next few years. And 430,000 is the average number of dollars it costs to buy a house in the town.
If that is not enough to persuade you, how about this: Levin is also home to an RJ’s Licorice factory shop that sells large bags of delicious offcuts.
ButWanden doesn’t need a new town billboard, a snappy slogan or the lure of cheap licorice to entice Wellingtonians to move 90 kilometres north; the people are coming to him.
People like Felicity Glensor, who made the move two years ago, partly to look after family, but also because she wanted more space.
Her children go to a country school in the Horowhenua town, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. ‘‘I moved for the lifestyle. The whole environment is so much better.’’
She’s not alone.
Glensor joinsmany others on the regular commute to the capital forwork.
They are among an increasing number of Wellington refugees seeking exile from a crazy housingmarket, soaring rents and Covid-inspired changes to theway we work.
The issues are myriad: Wellington has become amillionaire’s club, with entry barred to many, and theHutt Valley is not far behind; Porirua is now one of the most expensive places in the country for renters.
Such is the frenzy that a 14-home Lower Hutt subdivision sold in a day.
The number of houses on offer is at an historic low, pushing prices to historic highs.
Also at a high is the number of people working from home for at least part of the week, with Covid-19 encouraging many to see the value of staying out of the capital.
WellingtonMayor Andy Foster is worried about a ‘‘hollowing’’ of the capital’s economy.
There are no such concerns further north, where Wanden’s council is developing Taraika, a subdivision that will house between 5000 and 7000 people in 2500 new homes.
He’s convinced that many of those will be people enjoying the cheaper lifestyle in Levin, even Waita¯rere Beach and Foxton, while commuting towork in Wellington, Porirua and the Hutt at least a few days a week.
His council waives some fees to encourage other developments, while another significant project is likely to encourage even moremovement and momentum.
‘‘When the north of Levin expressway is finished, as well as the top of the Transmission Gully and the existing expressway to taki, the reality is that Levin will be 50 minutes to Wellington on a four-lane highway,’’ he says. People are already making that trip. StatsNZ figures indicate that up to 7 per cent of Levin’s workforce regularly heads south to Wellington. That would be about 1300 people, according to population figures.
Leigh Morris hops on the Capital Connection at taki Station. She traded her apartment in central Wellington for a new build at the coastal community.
In the city she felt isolated, ‘‘like being in prison’’. At taki Beach she has found a ‘‘diverse community, lots of oldfashioned values, where people talk to you’’.
And a land and house package for under $450,000, which she bought in January last year. Now it’s valued at more than $600,000.
Commuting to Wellington for work took 75 minutes and wasn’t cheap. But in the aftermath of Covid-19 and lockdowns, the correspondence secondary teacher now works from home three days a week, saving $90 aweek and many hours in travel.
She’s not alone inmaking that regular trek into the capital. Morris says there are usually about 65 people at the taki station when she doesmake the trip into the office.
‘‘When I first got there, I remember counting and it was about 32 people, so I think it has doubled,’’ she says.
The Government earlier this year announced $15 million to refurbish carriages on the Capital Connection train, and Wanden says there is a proposal for new stock in 2025 and more services.
A KiwiRail spokesperson confirmed it was ‘‘working with Horizons Regional Council and Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) on the long-term future of the service’’.
That plan involves the possibility of ‘‘hybrid longer-distance trains to replace the current ageingWairarapa and Capital Connection fleets, and [to] boost service levels to increase the options for travel and lift the capacity across the network’’, a GWRC spokesperson says.
However, not everyone is heading up thewestern coast. Dennis Page has decided his future lies over the Remutaka hills – in Greytown.
The LowerHutt scientist is building a house inWairarapa and plans to move there once it’s completed. He’s leaving not because of the housing crisis but rather the plans in place to help tackle it: the infill housing and higher density.
‘‘In my case, it’smore an amenity issue and a lack of confidence in Hutt City to keep a city that preserves some form of green, open space, with decent amenities,’’ he says.
‘‘I’m sacrificing a longer commute for an opportunity to live in an area which has better open space, better climate for gardening, still that connectivity to Wellingtonwith the rail link and prospect of a road commute.’’
Not that he’s tooworried about that trip. ‘‘When I lived in Wainuiomata, studying at Victoria University, I used public transport – a combination of bus, train and walking – and it was an hour and 20minutes to university.’’
Like Morris, Page is far from alone in making that move away from the city.
The Wairarapa has become so popular that Featherston, Martinborough and Greytown are now considered too expensive for many people, Property Brokers areamanager BrentWoodmass says.
People are being pushed even further out, ‘‘another 10 minutes on the train to Masterton and Carterton, where prices are a little bit cheaper ... and you get a bit more for your buck’’.
‘‘I did a contract the other day on a lifestyle block in Carterton, and had 19 offers on it,’’ Woodmass says. ‘‘At least a third of those buyerswould have been from outside theWairarapa.’’
Thatwas creating some tension. ‘‘If, a few years ago, you were competingwith 3 to 4, now it’s 8 to 10. And of those, there’s probably 4 to 5 that have missed out on other properties already.’’
The growing trend to move outside the capital has been officially acknowledged through the creation of the Wellington Regional Growth Framework, a blueprint for growth over the next 30 years that includes the Horowhenua District and envisages another 200,000 people living in the lower North Island.
In the areas targeted by the report, new housing is projected tomake up 88 per cent of the growth, with the remaining 12 per cent infill housing and intensification. The biggest potential for growth lies in the ‘‘western corridor’’, with 40 per cent of that new housing expected to be built between Tawa and Levin, and a third in the eastern corridor, from Lower Hutt to Masterton.
BernieWanden, Leigh Morris and Dennis Page are set to get a lot of new neighbours.
Better crank out the licorice, then.