Page 43 - Build 165

Medium-density housing
Medium-density attached housing (such as units, terraced housing and apartments)
19% 2013
in the field to use common terminology, BRANZ researchers de ne MDH as multi-unit dwellings (up to 6-storeys).
This super-set de nition brings together the disparate terminology currently in use and encompasses all the types of buildings that are commonly considered MDH in New Zealand. It is also exible enough to encompass new classes of building as they emerge in the future.
From there, BRANZ breaks MDH down into three categories:
● Category 1: 1–2-storey attached dwellings.
● Category 2: 2–4-storey attached dwellings. ● Category3:Apartmentbuildings.
MDH developments on the rise
While a greater variety of MDH develop- ments, such as terraced housing and low- rise apartments, have been built in the main centres, they do not always align with the proposed intensi cation in local authority strategies and policies. Yet the research made it clear that the shift to higher densi- ties is well under way.
2025
In 2013, low-density stand-alone housing made up 81% (1,193,358 dwellings) of the total occupied New Zealand housing stock. Medium-density attached housing, such as units, terraced housing and apartments, made up just 18% (266,748 dwellings) of occupied private dwellings.
Contrast that with 2017, when MDH made up roughly a quarter of new builds. That gure is expected to rise dramatically, with more than one-third of all new dwellings built in this country likely to be MDH by 2025. Unsurprisingly, more than half of these builds will be located in Auckland.
Nationwide, the number of new MDH developments is expected to increase by 6% per year from today’s estimate of 6,800 per year to about 10,500 by 2025. Flats and terraced housing to 3-storeys make up much of these at a 60% share of all new MDH in the next 5 years. Next largest numerically are retirement village units and apartments, each at 20% share of MDH over the next few years. The former is a mix of ats, apart- ments and duplexes.
low-density stand-alone housing
81%
25%
MDH around a quarter of all new housing
2017
Barriers with compliance and consents
The research identified resource and building consents as one of the greatest perceived barriers to MDH development by industry practitioners and local authori- ties alike. For the former, most consenting issues centre around:
● lack of clarity and uncertainty about the time it takes to receive a consent and the cost implications this has for industry
● the perception that councils have too much discretion over consenting, resulting in confusion and delays
● concerns that councils lack the skills to deal with complex building consent applications.
Local authorities, on the other hand, are frustrated by developers’ apparent lack of understanding of MDH requirements, which results in inadequate consent applications. In some cases, they believe developers are undertaking work beyond their experience and capability.
Both groups agree that several aspects of the Acceptable Solutions and Veri cation Methods were not designed for the types of MDH currently being constructed, leading designers to develop their own alternative methods that may carry additional uncer- tainty and risk.
Possible solutions
The researchers identified a range of possible solutions for further investigation, including:
● changes to resource management legisla-
tion to make district plans and planning
documents clearer and more consistent ● changes to the Acceptable Solutions and Veri cation Methods to better cater for
MDH design
● national policy statements to clarify
council planning documents, creating an information resource on MDH for both council and industry.
Improving acoustic performance
In a BRANZ study report released late last year, researchers identified several common sources of nuisance noise in
33% new housing
MDH more than one-third of all
Build 165 — April/May 2018 — 41
FEATURE SECTION