Pocket Houses: Well done to Tim Dorrington
🏡 🏆 Pocket Houses: Well done to Tim Dorrington
Auckland’s house building challenges where the TAIL WAGS THE DOG
🏗️ Build Costs
Tim says that the off-site, non-building costs for the Pocket Houses project represented 20-25% of the total costs—primarily for permissions and connections to infrastructure. In some zones, these infrastructure and development fees could potentially add 50% or more to the actual build cost, which works against the goal of increasing housing stock [exactly the same as I have found in my work].
⏱️ Build Time
The processing of separate consents (resource, building and subdivision) took twice as long as the actual build itself. This significantly extended the overall project timeline [bang on everyone’s challenges].
🔌 Infrastructure Connections
The costs for infrastructure connections were a substantial portion of the “off-site, non-building costs” which comprised 20-25% of the total project budget.
📋 Compliance Issues (longer than the build time)
The architects discovered numerous unexpected costs during development, which they categorised as ‘compliance’ or ‘permission’ costs. They found that when attempting to create a simple, prototype-style housing project, there seemed to be a “disincentive to try, when faced with the roadblocks and bureaucracy.”
The current system applies the same compliance process to projects of every scale and complexity. Simple, low-risk builds like the Pocket Houses are burdened with the same processes as large-scale architectural works.
One major improvement would be combining the separate consent processes—resource, building and subdivision—into a single process. In this project, processing these separate consents took twice as long as the build itself and cost significantly more.
💡 The new building consent change will help this a lot
Streamlining the path to consent for small, simple, standalone homes will make a significant difference to both affordability and timelines. Some positive changes are already happening, including self-certification for some trades, permits for minor dwellings on certain sites, and suggested fast-tracking for buildings under 70m².
