Andrew Crosby: Xpect Property Limited spokesperson on Watercare’s new map revealing which areas will suffer from lack of water infrastructure

There's growing concerns that a lack of water infrastructure will slow down housing developments planned for parts of Auckland.

On the Hibiscus Coast anyone without resource consent may have to wait until 2031 for a wastewater connection.

The Army Bay treatment plant upgrade is not expected to be completed until 2031.

Andrew Crosby of Xpect Property Limited says it's 'shocking' how much of Auckland has no water or wastewater capacity.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Ever do for ze Ellen.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Okay, it looks like Auckland's run into a major problem
with building more houses. We don't have enough water pipes.
Water Care has finally released a map which shows the
areas in Auckland that are facing restrictions on development because
of water connections. For example, on the Hibiscus Coast, anyone
without resource consent already could have to wait around six
years for a new waste water connection. Now Andrew Crosby

(00:23):
is from Expects Property Development.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Hey Andrew, Hi, how are you going ahead?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
I'm very well. Thank you. Were you surprised when you
saw that map?

Speaker 3 (00:30):
No, because that map has been hidden.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
With water Care for who knows how long, but probably
many months, And it's taken a group of very dedicated
professionals who have set up a public advocacy company to
sort of help water Care release those maps. So everyone
who's bought land around Auckland has got resource consent knows

(01:01):
whether they can actually develop their properties or not because
of the infrastructure. We knew it was coming, we didn't
know exactly the extent of the map, and it's quite
surprising and perhaps shocking how much of Auckland literally has
no wastewater and water capacity.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah, that's what I was meaning. So you're not surprised
at the existence of the map, but you are surprised
at how extensive the kind of limitation is on where
you can build.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
What happened literally only weeks ago, maybe months ago, people
in Otara Papatowi started receiving letters developers who have resource
consent are entitled to rely on their resource consent. They
started receiving letters on their engineering approval applications saying, sorry, guys,
there's no wastewater or water capacity in this area, we

(01:48):
can't give you engineering approval. And so that just started
slowly happening, and so we went quite sure of the extent.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
And then the map was released, and.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
You've got places like Beech Haven, you've got the whole
Hibiscus Coasts, you've got parts of Otara Papatoa, You've got wait, Takerei,
You've got East Auckland that the whole of East Auckland
has a color over it, basically saying it's not going
to be ready to twenty thirty five to twenty forty. So
it doesn't mean there'll be no development, but basically they're

(02:19):
saying if you want to do a little development here
and add some more affordable houses to the Auckland market.

Speaker 3 (02:25):
Sorry, guys, our pipes aren't big enough.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yeah, but still a fair amount of area in the
a fair amount of land in the city area that
you can develop on.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Yeah, we'll tell that to the mum and dad developers
who have actually got resource consent when and spent tens
of thousands of dollars on building concent documentation and engineering applications,
only then to be told.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
No, there's no capacity.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
There's no fore warning, there are no civil engineers who
knew about this, there was no real transparency.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
Good on water care for releasing the map. Now you
talking about Andrew.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Where if people spent money. Where if people spent money
to develop land and now they've been told they can't
well in.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
These areas and Otara Pepetai.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
But according to the map it looks like there is
ability to develop there.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Well, there's a big orange chunk in the middle, which,
oh I see thousands and thousands of hectares.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
Maybe not that much, but you know, there's a significance.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
The map is quite shocking, and there's a lot of
people who spent money, they've bought sites based on development
that more than likely now they'll be told there's no
capacity for another ten years. So is you.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
I mean, it feels to me as if water Care
has known but not been completely upfront about this.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah. Absolutely, How long have they known? I don't know,
but there were unofficial maps released by people on the
inside and they surfaced a month or three ago, so
I guess.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
I mean, my theory is that when the.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Government, the previous government launched the MDRS rule, all of
a sudden, council had to throw out a lot of
their plans. This is an Auklyn because all the unitary
planned had infrastructure signed, you'd think, and then the new
government put all these new rules in without thinking anything
about infrastructure, and then the council had to sort of

(04:16):
rapidly adapt. And now there's new areas which there's just
no infrastructure left as far as transmission and pipes and
all those sorts of things. So it's a bit of
a it's a bit of a puzzle and it's a
big problem, and I'm not sure what the solution is,
but at least being transparent now and getting that information
into the hands of everyone, you know, will slowly help

(04:39):
this so long.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, well, good luck with it, Andrew, Thanks very much
for talking us through. That's Andrew Crosby Expects property developments.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
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