Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Act 2013: Incentives and Outcomes for Housing Development in the Nelson Urban Area

Abstract

The Fifth National Government introduced the Housing Accord and Special Housing Areas Act 2013(HASHA) as a policy to increase housing affordability within certain region or districts identified as having housing supply and affordability issues. Now mostly repealed, HASHA aimed to achieve a short-term increase in land and housing supply through a marketled process through a more enabling regulatory environment to ease house price pressures. In 2015 the Nelson City Council and Tasman District Council entered into housing accords with central government which enabled SHA to be declared within their districts. This study aimed to evaluate what urban development for housing typologies have been incentivised through the implementation of HASHA at local government level in the Nelson Urban Area. This study applied a mixed-methods approach allowing convergent validation to address the research aim. This study established a comparative baseline for occupancy, demand, and housing supply under the normal regulatory regime of the Resource Management Act 1991 to assess how incentivisation of housing development outcomes has occurred. This was established by completing a document analysis of policies and resource consents in conjunction with geographic systems (GIS) analysis of property titles and building coverages which established a typological baseline. Interviews with key informants in the NUA provided insights into the implementation of HASHA and perspectives on what urban development for housing outcomes had resulted from it. The results of this study showed primarily a continuation of the status quo of low-density lowrise residential housing development. However, the NUA also experienced an increase in the proportion of attached, higher density dwelling typologies relative to detached, lower density typologies. The implementation of HASHA was highly political. Policy goals of the government were imposed on the NCC and TDC through the decision-making hierarchy and alternative consenting path. Through this path, HASHA enabled a renegotiation of the user rights regime for land. This offered incentives in cost and risk reductions to developers which ultimately effected the feasibility of development. It was found that while this affected all development styles, the feasibility of higher density development typologies was most improved. A connection was established between the higher density developments and the future demand for these development typologies as residents desired utility value from homes may be influenced.