Shared equity housing for Whangārei senior citizens proposed

An advisory for older adults has proposed that smaller units for Whangārei senior citizens be built on a shared equity basis with the Whangārei District Council.

The proposal, supported by Age Concern Whangārei and Grey Power in Whangārei, was put forward to address the lack of suitable and affordable housing for pensioners in the district.

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Robin Lieffering, former Whangārei district councillor, chairs the Positive Ageing Advisory Group that is spearheading efforts for “a growing cohort” of pensioners who need to downsize to small units for various reasons, including reaching the age of 65 with a mortgage, Northern Advocate reported.

There are currently 164 units for pensioners in WDC, with 23 applicants on the waiting list for a single-bedroom unit and a further 14 for two-bedroom abodes.

Stats New Zealand data showed that an estimated 40,900 people over the age of 65 resided in Northland at the end of 2021 – that was nearly 21% of the region’s estimated population of 197,900.

In just three years, the number of people in that age group increased by nearly 14% — from 36,000 in 2018 to 40,900 by the end of last year.

“There’s another very growing demand for small units for people, for example, there’s a large number of people reaching 65 with a mortgage,” Lieffering told Northern Advocate.

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She said the number of people aged 65 and over with a mortgage will increase “enormously” because home buyers are buying their first home later in life.

“There are other reasons, where people who lose a partner and they still live in the family home and they can’t afford to replace the roof or paint the house or whatever, and then there are those who are divorced,” Lieffering said.

The advisory group is also pushing for a whole housing strategy to be developed.

“We hope the council would come in, in a shared equity way which means they would do the first investment and then these units will be built, and people could share their expense and so forth, owning unit titles, having ownership shared with the council,” Lieffering told Northern Advocate.

The group would also like to see 5% of big developments to be reserved for multi-units.

Lieffering said most pensioners would like to downsize in the community they’ve always lived in – and for obvious reasons.

“The big advantage of living in Whangārei is you can live five months of the year outside,” she said. “It's not a requirement now to build in on-site parking so that’s a huge relief because you could put on 800 sqm four units. They might be like that, they might be staggered or in a row but whatever you do, there will be an area of private outdoor garden.”

Hamish Sykes, WDC strategic planner, said the council initially focused on enhancing its long-term delivery of pensioner housing through a partnership approach.

“We acknowledge the Positively Ageing Advisory Group are strong advocates for shared equity approaches and we’ll continue these conversations through the implementation of the housing strategy, and the next review of council's pensioner housing policy,” Sykes told Northern Advocate.

In its current long-term plan, $1 million of the $4 million WDC has allocated to support pensioner housing is withheld awaiting completion of the Housing Strategy.

Beryl Wilkinson, Age Concern Whangārei resident, said housing on a shared equity basis, where senior citizens lived side-by-side with others, would be more suitable than stand-alone pensioner housing.

“We need accommodation for older people that's suitable and affordable,” Wilkinson said. “For some of our older people trying to live on a fixed income is leaving them in poverty. Some are just getting by and with migration, there's a real demand for such housing and we at the Age Concern are constantly asked to help find suitable accommodation.”

Jan Kini, president of the Grey Power in Whangārei, likes the proposal but said there should first be discussions on how exactly it would work.

“It’s something we at Grey Power will definitely be looking at giving our feedback on before any decision is made,” Kini told Northern Advocate. “There’s definitely a need for more houses for pensioners because there's simply not enough.”