Delivering on warm, dry homes
Urban Plus is walking the talk, when it comes to building affordable warm, dry houses.
The Hutt City Council’s property company is behind a Waiwhetū residential housing development that could save home owners up to $4000 a year in living costs.
All homes are being built to the New Zealand Green Building Council’s Homestar 6 rating and for those buying their first home there is an extra bonus. In addition to the energy savings, ANZ is offering interest rate reductions of up to 1% for first-home buyers purchasing a Homestar home.
Urban Plus development manager Alastair Meehan said that could save buyers thousands of dollars a year on their mortgage. “If you take an example of a house purchased for $880,000 with a 20% deposit and 30-year loan term, home owners could save up to $3863 on their repayments in the first year.”
Urban Plus is one of the only largescale developers in Wellington building Homestar-rated homes.
Meehan said that as a council business, it understood the impact the current inflationary environment was having and it was looking to make it as easy as possible for people to buy a new home.
The development, which includes 20 two and three-bedroom townhouses, is targeting first-home buyers and owneroccupiers, priced from $649,000.
Homestar is an independent rating tool that assesses the health, efficiency, and sustainability of homes.
Meehan estimated that it would produce an annual energy savings of up to $500.
As well as being warmer, a Homestar home used less energy by reducing the need for heating. It was not only saving money that made it a good investment.
“New Zealand has a well-documented housing shortage, but we feel what is often under-reported is that we also have high levels of substandard housing, which causes a myriad of issues.”
One of those issues was asthma, which a cold house could worsen, Meehan said.
“New Zealand has the dubious honour of having the second-highest rate of asthma in the world, which is exacerbated by our poor-quality housing stock. We believe that good-quality and thermally efficient homes help to reduce heating costs and improve our collective health and wellbeing.”
Building a home to the Homestar 6 rating added about 1% to the cost, he estimated. “To get a certificate, you have to prove that the design meets the specifications and there is also quite a comprehensive audit.”
Kāinga Ora already used Homestar and he hoped all builders and developers in the Hutt followed suit.
Builder Mike Friday, of Friday Homes, which is building about 100 homes in the Hutt Valley, said improving the quality of the building stock was the right approach. Homestar was a good concept but he thought the extra cost was more than 1%.
“There are already a lot of complex compliance costs. My feeling is that I think it would be more like 2-3%.”
It added another level of paperwork, which builders were already struggling with.
Current standards were high but he said Homestar was a good marketing tool and it reassured the buyer that they were getting a quality product. To receive a Homestar rating, a house must meet performance and sustainability requirements above and beyond the New Zealand Building Code. It assesses the health, efficiency, and sustainability of homes.
Homestar rates on a scale of 6 to 10. It enables owners and professionals to better understand where their home or design fits in and steps they can take to build a healthier home, which reduces the amount spent on energy.
Replacing an 18-litre-per-minute shower head with a 6-litre-per-minute shower head can cut your hot water bill by $293 a year, while still providing an effective shower.