Jack Tame: A yo-pro praises apartment living

Inner city Auckland is more vibrant than ever. Photo / Jason Oxenham.

Opinion

In the three years I've lived in New York, I've never owned a lawnmower. Of course I haven't. You don't need a lawnmower when you don't have a backyard and you don't need a backyard when there's a park around the corner.

Sure, my apartment isn't as big as the villas I once shared in New Zealand, but I can vacuum it in 15 minutes and I never have to shovel the drive.

I'm a flighty yo-pro with no kids or commitments: apartment life makes perfect sense. And in a homeland that coined the term "the quarter-acre dream", I'm glad to be winning some supporters.

Prime Minister John Key's recommendation to first-home buyers that they consider buying an apartment is excellent.

I was thrilled to hear he-of-the-velvet-summations, Kevin McCloud, implore Auckland's planners to fight urban sprawl.

No one wants crap. No one wants more of those horrid, leaky, offensive little cells that line Hobson and Nelson streets.

But if the Government is serious about encouraging first-home buyers to shell out for high-density life, some concessions would be most welcome.

Construction in New Zealand is too expensive.

A Kiwi architect friend working in New York reckons the material cost of building in a prime Manhattan neighbourhood is the same price per square metre as a small house in New Zealand. And financing's a major issue.

Because apartments do not appreciate at the same ludicrous rate as Auckland houses, banks generally require larger deposits.

Using KiwiSaver to help with your first home isn't nearly as easy as if you were buying a box in the 'burbs.

To some degree, change requires a cultural shift and at least Auckland's on the way. The inner city is more vibrant than ever and public space is only improving.

People returning from their OE spells abroad are more open to apartment and townhouse life. But the surge in Auckland's CV ratings proves there's an awfully long way to go.

It's a job too tough, perhaps, even for McCloud's finest monologue. And it's a job to be encouraged by governance.Jack Tame is on Newstalk ZB Saturdays, 9am-midday