David Witburn: Whitburn Group Project Development on whether the Government's granny flat rule changes will lead to more homes being built

An Auckland property developer doesn't believe changes to rules on building granny flats will add the 13,000 extra dwellings claimed by the Government.

Easing resource and building consents requirements for structures 70 square metres or less - was one of the Government’s first moves in office.

David Witburn says the number is more like 3,000.

"The reality is, it's a niche accommodation type, a granny flat. It's not everyone's dream to live in a granny flat, it can be very useful for extended whanau living."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Remember the old granny flats and the rule change that

(00:02):
lets you put one on your property without having to
get consent, Well, not so easy. You still need permission apparently,
which means that the promise of thirteen thousand more flats
is probably slightly overinflated. Managing director of witburn Group, David
Whitburner is with us. Now, Hi, David, David, are you there?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Are there? You are?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (00:23):
If not thirteen thousand, how many?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
I think it's far more likely to see it a
big more like three thousand or so extra dwellings. The
reality is it's a niche accommodation type of granny flat.
It's not everyone's dreamed to live in. A granny flat
can be very useful for extended far and no living.
Can be useful for an investment purpose to do it
as well, but it's often very poor density. For the

(00:49):
Tier one city, they're limited to only one story seventy
square meters in size. So it's a little bit of
a niche activity type.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Okay, what kind of permission do you still need to get?

Speaker 2 (01:01):
You still need to get a PIM or a project
information memorandum. This gives the councils of territorial authorities, the
ability to screen out certain things like building too close
to the neighbors and floodplains and culturally sensitive areas significant
ecological areas. So there are quite a few constraints that
will still mean that you need to get things up,
surveys and architects involved to make sure that you're not

(01:25):
breaching any rules with hazards, and it can actually demonstrate
to council you're treading storm and waste water properly and
have got the appropriate vehicle access in parking, depending on
the council that you're in.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
In all so, would you have to go through the
rigmarole of getting an architect in all cases or just
in the worst cases.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
In most cases you'll still need it only because you'll
need to know what to order in terms of that,
and nowadays the software is designed that it's much easier
with computer aided design text you get your architect to
do it. There should be some savings and some streamlinings
from it, but not in all cases. But in most
cases it's present to get an architect, and how.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Much of pain and a butt it is a PEM
as opposed to go through for a resource consent let's
just say.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Oh, a pim's much easier than getting a resource consent,
but it still needs detailed information. This is where some
of the councils have aver already been on record for
being a little bit worried about it. They're worried about
now They're planning teams are going to have to be
the gatekeeper and block out numerous of these granny flats.
Whereas they think the resource concent process and building consent
processes are better, the PEM still needs detailed information on it.

(02:34):
So you still need to provide a site plan, a
floor plan and scale drawings to make sure that you
can demonstrate that you're hitting the key planning controls.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
All right, Hey David, thanks for that. Appreciated. That's David Whitburn,
the managing director of the Whitburn Group Project Development.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
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