30 June, 2022

Council sell-off alarms senior homeowners

More council-controlled Devonport pensioner properties appear to have been opened up for sale.

The public stake in two villages – 16 units at Bardia St and 11 in Bayswater Ave – is in doubt withAuckland Council’s decision to sell its share in the Own Your Own Home (OYOH) scheme. Homeowners at Bardia St, who were shocked to learn of the sell-off, say they weren’t consulted and are concerned the site will be land-banked by a developer.

They fear the communities at the pensioner village will be destroyed, with homes not being reoccupied after residents die or leave.

Panuku confirmed that in any deal council would sell the Bardia land of 5676 sqm and the Bayswater plot of 2414 sqm. Under the OYOH scheme, pensioners aged over 65 could purchase an 80 per cent share of a unit at market value, while council retained a 20 per cent share, with the proviso that units must be sold back to the council, to be on sold to other in-need retirees.

Around 130 units acrossAuckland are part of the scheme, but many are unoccupied.

Council property arm Panuku wrote to residents in June, announcing theAuckland Council decision to sell and expressing an intention to find “the right socially minded organisation” to continue the scheme.

It said it would work with both public-sector and private-sector housing providers to identify who wanted to participate in the schemeIn a second letter, two weeks later, it said Auckland Council’s interest would be divested through an off-market, two-stage expression-of-interest process. Stage one is expected to take 14 weeks.

Bill Rayner, President of Grey Power North Shore, said the sale should be halted.

“The properties must not be sold to developers like the Handley Ave Haumaru units.

“There is a critical and growing housing shortage for seniors in Devonport and the units and their sites must be retained in council ownership and the concept continued,” Rayner said.

The logical solution was for the interest in the properties to be transferred to Haumaru, the joint venture between council and the Selwyn Foundation that manages the 1400 senior housing units the council owns, he said. Grey Power was opposed to any council sale of any senior-housing property.

“If a site is no longer suitable for senior housing – and some aren’t – the proceeds of any disposal must be used to buy a suitable site in the same area for a new Haumaru senior-housing development, increasing the overall stock with modern units.

“This did not happen with the Handley Ave sale, the proceeds moving out of Devonport to an unknown destination.”

“It is extremely disappointing that the council decision to end the scheme and sell off the units was passed last month behind closed doors, a few months before the council elections, no doubt reflecting the council’s desperate financial situation with the current budget shortfall,” Rayner said.

Grey Power would approach councillors and the government to ask that the sale decision be reconsidered and insist that no properties be disposed of before the local-body elections.

Homeowners rocked by council bombshell

Wayne Andrew and Anders Berg have lived at Garden Crescent for five years. They love the community and park-like feel of the Bardia St village.

The grounds are spacious, birds and trees are numerous and the units well-spaced.

“It’s quite beautiful – it would be worth millions, which obviously it will be when sold,” Andrew (75) said.

They are among Own Your Own Home scheme owners alarmed at an Auckland Council decision to sell its share in the scheme.

Council property arm Panuku claims the scheme is becoming less desirable and that a high proportion of units are vacant, due to older Aucklanders showing less interest in it than previously.

“We feel this decision has been a long time coming – a fait accompli really,” Andrew said.

“We don’t think we have been consulted at all. We were informed by two letters that the decision had already been made.”

The worst-case scenario was “if someone land-banks the site, and you could be living by yourself in a unit while all the properties around you become derelict,” he said.

Of the 16 units at Bardia, nine were unoccupied.

Most of the remaining residents were in their 80s.

A developer might have to hold a stake for perhaps 20 years, but could end up with a large, relatively flat site, he said.

Even if the site transferred to Kaianga Ora – the government housing provider – it would likely be turned into apartment-block housing, like that on the corner of Bardia St and Lake Rd, Andrew said.

“No doubt all the trees would be cut down and all the birdlife lost.”

• Andrew and Berg bought their unit at Garden Crescent in 2017 for $440,000 and say it is probably worth $600,000 in the current market.