Tauranga housing crisis: Residents living in boats, vans

By Louise Ternouth of RNZ

Tauranga is “not coping” with its biggest issue - the housing crisis, the city’s commission chairperson Anne Tolley says.

RNZ has spoken to locals living in boats and vans as the price of a rental continues to soar in the Bay of Plenty.

Abby Mackelry, 21, and her partner Jessie Laing have been living in a van with their dog Jester for the last six months, unable to find suitable or affordable accommodation in Tauranga.

“This is my cosy little home basically, just have some little shelves at the head of our bed and just all sorts of storage mainly just keep our BBQ stuff, some clothes, cutlery, just the basics in the van.

“We also have our curtains and our double tinted windows for plenty of privacy, it’s very very cosy.”

Cosy it may be, but it was far from ideal.

The couple pay about $75 a week to park at a friend’s place and use their power, Wi-Fi and shower. But they have been told they need to move on, so they were desperately searching for a place to call home.

“It’s really daunting. I have put up quite a few Facebook posts, a lot of private rental pages and things like that, even Trade Me, I don’t get replies a lot of the time.”

Abby Mackelry. Photo / Marika Khabazi

Mackelry said because they were in their 20s and have a dog they were often overlooked. “Nobody wants to take a chance on us.”

That was if they could even afford what was on offer. Mackelry was studying beauty therapy fulltime on a student loan and her partner lived with epilepsy and was unable to work.

They were not alone in their struggle.

The average weekly rent in Tauranga five years ago was $474, it has now skyrocketed to $670 - an increase of 41 per cent.

People were feeling it in the pocket. One local resident who did not want to be interviewed told RNZ it felt impossible to get a rental after searching for two years. They were living in a boat with their daughter.

Another local said they had found a rental but had also looked for a few years before they found it.

“Yeah, I rent. Me and my kids, it’s pretty pricey - that’s pretty normal though today eh, we’re just pretty, pretty much just getting by, just making it.”

Since February 2019 to February 2023, there had been a 180 per cent increase of people on the transitional housing register in Tauranga.

Tolley admitted the city had growing pains.

“Housing for us is a huge issue and the reality is we’re not coping with that.”

Tolley said the council had tried.

“But still we have the highest house prices to income in the country. We’re only consenting half the number of houses that we need to be so we are continually falling behind.

“We’re about 5500 houses short now, which means it keeps the price up.”

The council has been talking to the Government about faster processing and consenting for new houses and changes were on the way.

The number of rentals listed on Trade Me was about 280 for a city of 160,000 people.

That was a slight increase since December last year, but Trade Me sales director Gavin Lloyd said that was still not meeting demand, with about 4000 people moving to the city every year.

“So while some of these numbers look not too bad on a year-on-year basis, gee, they’ve been coming from a really, really low base and we just know that supply is just not satisfying particularly that net migration number that we’re seeing at the moment, those record highs.”

Anne Tolley admitted the city had growing pains. Photo / Alisha Evans

Demand for one- and two-bedroom homes was also on the rise, according to Trade Me.

Age Concern general manager Tanya Smith said pensioners could be behind that demand, but many were unable to afford or find the right place.

“We know there’s a growing number of older people that are becoming homeless. They’re ending up in a camping ground or they’re moving in with their family members, there is not enough rental properties out there now.”

In February, a local Facebook page was created, called “Accommodation options for over-65s”. It already has more than 250 members.

The idea was to provide a flatting option for seniors in Tauranga, those without access to the internet could fill out an application form at the community centre.

But Smith said they should not have to resort to this. There simply needed to be more housing for the ageing population.

“The Government’s known that this is coming and it’s just been at a standstill and so it’s time to move and it was meant to move yesterday, not tomorrow.”

- By RNZ