Mike's Minute: Auckland is dealing with the trouble of change

The trouble with change, apart from the fact we don’t like it, is it's especially bad if we don't know what it is. 

The good news for real estate this week has been the foreign buyers changes for visa holders. 

Adding to that, we've had a series of interest rate cuts, with more to come. 

But in a place like Auckland what do you buy, and where? 

There is no small amount of angst currently over a new unitary plan. 

The new plan came out of the Government's idea of having three houses, three stories tall, on a regular section with no real clearance required. 

Auckland didn’t want that, so they were, and are, allowed to make up their own. 

The answer roughly, at the moment, appears to be high-rise and a lot of it around public transport hubs. Cue the outrage, the upset, the questions, and the heated meetings. 

The new plan must be able to accommodate two million houses. 

What this does to a real estate market is simple: it hobbles it, especially at a time when none of the decisions are made or are concrete. 

What neighbourhood is affected? What part of that neighbourhood? 

We looked at a place the other day. Currently it's mixed use with next door being commercial. It could be 27 stories. It's not currently, but it could be. 

Another place we looked at had a nice view of the harbour, apart from the house in front that could be multi-story. It isn't currently, but it could be. 

You don’t look at a house anymore, you look at the house next door, or behind. What is it? What could it be? 

There is little in life to fire us up more than our castle and its environments being meddled with. 

Making it worse, specifically, in a place like Auckland is the fact the place has been butchered by clowns. You wouldn’t trust these people to run your bath, far less a city. 

So as we sit and wait and debate and get tense and object and fume and worry, how many people who were about to borrow, or spend, or shift, or expand, or build are now second guessing? 

And in second guessing, doing nothing? 

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