Dan Richardson: KR Construction Director on the concerns over whether townhouses are fit for purpose

There are concerns housing developers are paying little attention to design and/or comfort. 

Christchurch building company, KR Construction, and the Green Building Council are questioning whether townhouses are fit for purpose. 

They claim many new builds are getting far too hot and have moisture issues. 

KR Construction Director Dan Richardson told Mike Hosking townhouses are a particularly new type of build. 

He says standalone houses have been built for about 150 years, while townhouses have only been hitting the market more in the last 10. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Some questions been raised this morning around construction, specifically on townhouses.
Do we have an oversaturated market our developers focusing on
maximum returns while paying little attention to design and comfort.
Dan Richardson is the director of KR Construction and is
with us.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Dan morning, Good morning mate, thanks for having me, not
at all.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Where's this come from? Who's talking about this? Why is
this a problem?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah? So we're interested in having a conversation about what
works and what doesn't for medium density housing. There's been
some negative media coverage recently around a couple of things
to do with quality for that type of housing, specifically
overheating and also some issues with ventilation, and we think
buyers can benefit from a bit more understanding about what

(00:44):
works and what doesn't this type.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
I am and so has this been a buiable ware
type scenario? Because I would argue that, you know, in
the marketplace, if you're building shonky houses, no one's buying
them because there's others to choose from. Or is what's happening?
These people are buying them with no idea of how
hot you're going to get and how badly designed the
place is.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, I think you know, building townhouses is a relatively
new typology in New Zealand. We've had about one hundred
and fifty odd years for you know, a fairly standard
standalone house on a large section to develop, whereas it's
only been in the last ten years or so that
a lot more townhouses have been built. So I do
think there has been a bit of a lack of
buyer awareness and you know that something I'm hoping to

(01:23):
have a conversation.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
About, how does the whole system work or not work?
How is it possible if you go back to England,
they've been living in these sort of townhouse type operations
for hundreds of years. How is it that it's news
in New Zealand and nobody from the council down thought
about how to design something properly. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
I think we've been quite lucky in New Zealand and
we've had the luxury of having a bit more land
and a bit less population density. And I think it
is that change in population density and changes in housing affordability,
changing households and lifestyles that are rather than the change
towards more townhouse development.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Is it just cost?

Speaker 2 (02:03):
I think predominantly there's a cost factor, and I think
it's also to do with household sizes. You know, the
average household size the New Zelanders now two point seven people.
So we used to demand for really large housing isn't
there as much as it could have been in the past. Also,
people's lifestyles wanting to live a bit closer to town,
live in suburbs, you know, close to their existing relationships.

(02:24):
And but you don't get me wrong with affordability as
a mass effector in that as well.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Of course, how do you tell one townhouse from another,
one that's badly built and is going to heat up
and kill you versus one that's really beautiful.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
That's part of the problem really. You know, the Building
Code doesn't really provide there's no provision in there for overheating.
There's no provision in there for you know, providing really
good ventilation above the b A minimum. So we think,
you know, there's some good tools out there. We're a
member of the Green Building Council, which provides a tool

(02:57):
called Echo which can measure overheating. It also provides an
independent standard called home Star where you can sort of
track the quality of this housing over and above the
A minimum in the building Code. So there are tools
out there, and I think it's about people having good
conversations with the builders or developers that are potentially purchasing
from exactly and understanding.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Well, let's hope we've smoked the conversation. Let's hope people
become aware. Dan Richardson, who's the director of KR Construction,
it seems my entire life we've had problem with housing
in this country. Haven't built enough, then built too many,
then we built ones that leak, and then we decide
to change the rules on the ones that leak. There's
an apartment building around the corner for me at the moment,
brand new building still leaks. All these years later, after

(03:37):
a leaky build, still building leak. It's just like we
don't seem to be able to get it right. For
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