Heather du Plessis-Allan: We're finally giving in to the shoebox apartments

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

It looks like we are finally giving in and allowing shoebox apartments in New Zealand.

This morning, Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced a whole raft of changes designed to make houses more affordable, and one of those changes is that he will remove any requirements for how big an apartment must be and how big the balcony must be.

He reckons that back in 2015 when Auckland Council changed balcony size restrictions, it pushed the price of apartments up by $40,000- $70,000 each.
Good call from him, it's about time we got on board with this.
The very first property I put under my name was a tiny, tiny apartment. The bedrooms were so small, you could fit in a double bed with just enough space to walk around it with your shoulders touching the walls.

I didn't have space for a dining table, so I took a bed out of a bedroom and put a dining table in and you could just get the chairs out from under the table without hitting the walls - it was that tiny.

But it was what I wanted, which was a place I could afford to buy in the middle of the city. And by the end of living there, to be honest, I was embarrassed by how tiny it was and I sold it and moved on to another place.
But at the time, it was perfect. And frankly, I probably couldn't afford much more - but it got me onto the property ladder.

Shoebox apartments are not ideal, but then renting because you can’t afford to buy is less ideal.

And yes, there will be developers who take the mickey with how small they can go, and these kinds of apartments are often an eyesore to everyone else who has to look at them.

But frankly, our priority has got to be something else. It's got to be letting people into their own homes, however small.

We have to accept we have a housing crisis, we've got to accept it’s not good for younger generations to feel like they’re locked out of home ownership.

And if they want to live in a small space because it’s all they can afford, why prevent them?

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.