Land lack holds Manukau back

Highbrook Business Park in East Tamaki.

Once the Flat Bush area is developed there are no more greenfield areas remaining in the Manukau area, Mayor Sir Barry Curtis, recently told a Property Investment Forum at the Pacific Events Centre.

Sir Barry said the availability of both business and residential land was "becoming problematic" and "basically, it's holding the region back".

Already large businesses were moving elsewhere because they could not find a big enough site in Manukau.

"We can't afford to lose these companies and I have constantly brought this to the attention of the ARC [Auckland Regional Council] together with my serious concerns about the impact on economic development," said Sir Barry.

"We still have a few years supply left, but we need to look at earmarking new areas for appropriate business zoning in the near future. This will involve not just Manukau, but also our partners in the south, Franklin and Papakura."

It was likely that more land, around 150ha, would become available north of Auckland airport, while land zoned Business 7, for mixed use, would become available around transport hubs such as Manurewa and Manukau City Centre.

Sir Barry said the Manukau City Council was completing plans for intensifying several town centres including old Papatoetoe, Mangere, and Manurewa, to provide a choice of housing styles in a mixed-use environment.

However, apartments and inner-city living were not for everyone and most New Zealanders still preferred to live in low rise, less intensive housing with some garden attached.

"But we're fast running out of areas suitable for that type of housing, which is why we need new greenfields areas opened up in the Auckland region." To get that will require changes to the Metropolitan Urban Limits which were set seven years ago.

Sir Barry said Manukau was participating in a review being conducted by the ARC.

"We are strongly urging that more greenfields land be made available, although I stress this does not mean we wish to see housing development stretch deep into the countryside.

"But, if the limits are not altered, we will see more development heading south to where there is available land in the North Waikato. I don't believe that's in the best interests of Manukau or the Auckland region."

On the positive side, there were major developments taking place in the next year that would have a huge impact for Manukau.

In October work will begin on the State Highway 20 extension linking it up with the Southern Motorway which, following the completion of work on SH20 extending it to the Northwestern Motorway, will provide an alternative regional route through greater Auckland.

Sir Barry said the Manukau interchange would take three to four years to build.

In April next year, it was expected that Highbrook Drive, the new road from the Southern Motorway to Highbrook Business Park in East Tamaki, would open.

He said Highbrook would be "the most advanced business park of its kind in Australasia, and a billion dollar investment in the city's future".

"This will attract the kinds of businesses we've never seen in Manukau and a workforce of knowledge workers. The ideal place for this new breed of professionals to live will be in a superb urban environment just five minutes drive away, in Flat Bush."

Sir Barry said Flat Bush would be the growth centre of the Manukau region and within five years would house an extra 40,000 people.

He said it would be "the first cyber town in New Zealand".

"We're planning for every household to be fully wired for high-speed broadband [internet], via a fibre network and in terms of data transfer, we're aiming for download speeds of around 30 megabites per second."

The council would release a "plan change" for the development of Flat Bush with public notification towards the end of this year.

"It's the last greenfields area left in Manukau, so we're being careful to ensure the highest urban design standards."

The council was retaining control of the future Flat Bush Town Centre through its wholly-owned subsidiary Tomorrows Manukau Properties.

"The reason for council retaining control of town centre development is because, we're all for progress, but not at any cost."

Flat Bush would feature a lot of waterways, as well as parks and green recreational areas.

Manukau was still the fastest growing city in New Zealand with around 10,000 new residents a year and a population of 330,000 at the last census - but now probably closer to 350,000.

"So we're closing in on Christchurch and will soon be the second biggest city in the country."

But development had to be appropriately planned, Sir Barry said.

"There will be no rip, tear and bust, as we've seen on occasion in the past. Developments now must be balanced, environmentally friendly, and meet high design standards and it is the council's job as the planning regulator to ensure those standards are met."

To this end Manukau has set up an Urban Design Panel to review projects and to ensure high standards of architecture and design.

David Poole, a principal of Bayleys Manukau, said Auckland's increasing traffic congestion was helping Manukau to grow. "We are seeing this with a big growth in small business precincts in the last year and some distribution tenants are now discounting the Mt Wellington/Penrose area as traffic flows limit their ability to operate efficiently."

Poole predicted that leasing incentives would start to reappear, as the number of buildings available for lease became higher than the number of larger tenants looking to move.

"We see high visibility, convenience retail rentals topping $500 per sq m," he said.

"This may seem high, but it is well short of procuring space in malls like Botany or Manukau.

"These rentals are being driven by land price, cost of development, and the increasing quality of surrounding tenants, making occupancy more profitable."

Poole said Bayleys also envisaged a continued growth in the commercial or office sectors, as more "service type" business were needed to support new companies in the Manukau region.

Businesses were continuing locate closer to clients with traffic congestion a major reason.