South Auckland woman Jing Zhang said delays connecting water to her home (not pictured) have forced her to put plans to start a family on hold for almost two years. Photo / 123rf
South Auckland woman Jing Zhang said delays connecting water to her home (not pictured) have forced her to put plans to start a family on hold for almost two years. Photo / 123rf
More than 1000 homes should have been built in a South Auckland development, instead it sits bare and vacant, waiting for water to be connected. Reporter Ben Leahy asks why.
Jing Zhang's South Auckland home has been bought, built and sits waiting for her.
Yet for the past 16 monthsshe has been unable to move in because it doesn't have a water connection.
The delay has stopped Zhang from starting a family because she fears getting pregnant could affect her income and put her home loan approval in doubt.
"I have to renew the mortgage every single year," she said.
Yet - apart from Zhang's - the land sections have lain bare and vacant for two to three years, with house building work on hold until water connections are in place.
The Herald on Sunday understands there are families who bought land and expected to have moved into homes by now, but have instead had family members pass away in the meantime.
Zhang said that for her - and the families who bought the empty blocks - it's been extremely difficult getting accurate answers as to the cause of the delays.
She likens it to a Kafkaesque nightmare where everybody blames everyone else for the delays.
Auckland Council, Watercare, and private water supplier Veolia deny any responsibility in the matter.
Even Francis Xu, from Golden Harbor Development, the developer of Zhang's land, claims she can't fully understand what the problem is.
That's led Auckland Council Papakura Local Board chairman Brent Catchpole to point to development in the Hingaia area of Karaka as a warning case for how poorly planned developments can go wrong, causing pain to home buyers and existing residents.
Buying a home, starting a family
Zhang said she was excited when she signed the purchase agreement for her home on Hayfield Way in August 2020.
It was the chance to put down roots and start a family.
She and her husband had chosen the area for its schools and proximity to Manukau Harbour.
Kevin Atkinson of Generation Homes. Photo / Supplied
Located 35km south of Auckland's city centre, the house is part of the Hayfield Park development, an area that was designated a Special Housing Area for future urban development under the previous National government.
Home builder Generation Homes completed Zhang's house in October 2020, at which point Zhang said the company told her the water supply was at the final sign-off stage.
Zhang could only be given the property title once the water connection was finalised.
Generation Homes chief executive Kevin Atkinson said his company had earlier bought the section from land developer Golden Harbor Development and was told the water connection was imminent.
He said it is the responsibility of the land developer - a separate company to Generation Homes - to provide the water.
Delay after delay
Yet 16 months later and there is still no date for when the water will be connected and the property title issued to Zhang.
Zhang said one of the early hold-ups was when the company contracted to design the development's infrastructure and collect money from each developer to fund it, went into liquidation in 2019.
That left the various developers preparing land in the area unable to agree on who should pay what amount to put in the water pipes, Zhang said,
Xu from Golden Harbour Developments said her team is one of up to nine developers affected by the delay.
Yet she is one of the smaller developers, only preparing 87 land sections - or about 7 per cent of the total land in the development, she said.
Jing Zhang said it's been extremely difficult to find answers as to why the delays in moving into her home (not pictured) have been so long. Photo / 123rf
Despite that and to ensure the project went ahead, she said she and the neighbouring developer had agreed to stump up the cash between them to fund water infrastructure for the entire development, not just her lots.
However, since putting together the cash, they had run into more technical problems, Xu said.
She said Veolia - the company responsible for providing water to the area - had told her a second feeder pipe needed to be laid to ensure a backup supply of drinking water to the development.
"There are a lot of unexpected problems, so many delays," Xu said.
"We couldn't find the right place underground to place the water pipe, it took a few months to detect the problem and that still has not been done yet."
There had also been a problem with the amount of water that could be pumped through from the nearby Hingaia Pump Station, owned by Watercare, she said.
Yet despite the delays and unknown completion date, house and land packages are still being advertised for sale on sections being developed by Golden Harbor Developments.
Gary Qi, the real estate agent selling the packages, said he is fully warning prospective buyers about the delays and that he doesn't know when the homes will be built
Xu, meanwhile, said she wanted to get the water connection done as soon as possible so she could sell the land and recoup her costs, but she didn't know who could help her solve the issue any quicker.
"I don't know if there is anyone that knows the truth," she said.
Veolia refused to comment, saying the company is not responsible for "this development".
Poor planning
Papakura Local Board chairman Brent Catchpole said the long delays are disappointing and causing heartache to families.
South Auckland woman Jing Zhang said delays connecting water to her home (not pictured) have forced her to put plans to start a family on hold for almost two years. Photo / 123rf
He said poor planning and the tendency for developers to do their projects piecemeal, rather than work in a co-ordinated manner had contributed to the problems.
As an example, he said it appeared one of the first developers to have their project approved had been able to snap up all the water capacity flowing into the area, leaving insufficient amounts for other new homes due to be built later.
It was similar on the roads.
Hingaia Rd traffic was a nightmare due to all the new people moving into the surrounding areas and the lack of additional roads and public transport to service them, Catchpole said.
"The infrastructure needed to go in place before these plan changes and building consents were approved," he said.
For her part, Zhang hopes a solution can be found soon so she and her husband can finally start the family they've always wanted.
