Affordable Homes

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Owning a sustainable home has never been more affordable.

Leading sustainable building companis ebode and Hybrid homes have come together to create the EKOKIT range of self-build eco houses that have been specifically designed to be flexible, sustainable and within the price reach of ordinary New Zealanders.

While the major components of an EKOKIT are prefabricated and delivered to you in a number of containers, EKOKIT is not a kitset in the usual sense – it is a system for building a sustainable home that minimizes the waste associated with traditional house building while also keeping the cost at a sensible and affordable level.

With a range of designs to choose from, you will easily find the right home to suit your site, needs and budget, and you can rest assured that all EKOKIT designs are based on passive solar principles, are thermally and water efficient and incorporate safe, healthy building materials.

The designs are extremely flexible, including innovative modular options that allow you to start off small and grow your home at a later date as your needs change.

EKOKIT homes can be built anywhere in New Zealand, under the supervision of a Licensed Building Practitioner.

The volume of residential building work has slumped almost 40 per cent in two years according to official figures.

The volume of residential building work put in place fell a further 5.4 per cent in the September 2009 quarter, and is at its lowest level recorded in eight years according to Statistics New Zealand.

This slump in building activity will flow through to investors in the form of an under supply to the housing demand and see property prices increase in value as well as a possible increase in rents.

Regions with high net migration will see the most benefit of this potential housing shortage.

MPs back affordable home law despite council protests.
5:00AM Tuesday July 08, 2008
By Claire Trevett

A law change allowing councils to make developers include cheap housing in projects has been approved by a select committee, despite complaints by councils that it will increase rates and drive up prices for other homes.

The Affordable Housing Bill will allow councils to set affordable housing policies but was almost unanimously panned by councils.

While most supported its broad goal, they said the costs of developing policies would be onerous and hit ratepayers in the pocket.

The select committee reported the bill back yesterday, saying it had made several changes to simplify the bill to meet council concerns.

However the National Party minority report says the proposed changes will make little difference to their complaints.

It says builders and developers would simply recoup their lost profits by charging more for other houses in a development.

It says councils – especially smaller ones – would struggle with the extra costs of doing housing needs assessments.

“Such a process imposes yet another layer of expectation and responsibility on them, another compliance cost, and another opportunity for delay in processing positive housing development opportunities. Council costs will simply flow through to taxpayers.”

It said the bill did not address a primary cause of higher house prices, which was the supply of housing.

The bill will allow councils to require developers to allocate homes in developments for cheap housing or pay cash towards cheap housing elsewhere.

The bill also ensures the cheaper homes cannot be on-sold for market prices in the longer term.

The select committee made numerous changes to the bill, including simplifying some of the requirements on councils for consulting, developing and applying their policies.

The committee has also restricted the rights to object to decisions made under the policy to landowners of affected developments, developers, or immediate neighbours – much narrower than previously, when anybody could object.

Real Estate Agents are out there every day listing and selling properties.

They know what is happening and have a much better idea about what is really happening than the media does. After all the Agents do the negotiating in all aspects of the Real Estate sale so they will know what is going on. Typically the media will get the information they think will sell the most stories and deliver that to your door.

So who would you want to sell your home? The local news reporter or your areas top agent?