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Proposed intensification in and around the city centres of Auckland has some members of the public riled up. (Image: Getty Images / Naomii Seah)
Proposed intensification in and around the city centres of Auckland has some members of the public riled up. (Image: Getty Images / Naomii Seah)

SocietyApril 26, 2022

Is Auckland really losing its heritage?

Proposed intensification in and around the city centres of Auckland has some members of the public riled up. (Image: Getty Images / Naomii Seah)
Proposed intensification in and around the city centres of Auckland has some members of the public riled up. (Image: Getty Images / Naomii Seah)

New urban intensification rules are causing some to worry about Auckland losing its historical character. But how much are we really losing by rezoning certain streets, and what do we stand to gain? 

“I’m an architectural historian and I care about the built environment, but I care even more about equity, and housing people.”

Bill McKay is a senior lecturer of architecture and planning at the University of Auckland, and he’s working on a book about Auckland’s design history. McKay is speaking on the proposed zoning changes to the streets of Tāmaki Makaurau in response to the new medium density residential standards (MDRS), which were passed as part of the Resource Management Amendment Act in December of last year. 

The changes mean that in existing residential areas, three separate dwellings of up to three storeys will be allowed per site without requiring additional resource consent. The move is part of a much-needed bid to increase housing supply and affordability. Currently, most residential areas have two-storey height restrictions and single dwelling sections, which McKay says is unsustainable. “If you want your kids running around a big backyard with lots of sun – that’s what the suburbs are for. It’s not a sustainable way of doing a city fringe.” He draws comparisons to Melbourne and Sydney, pointing out that many people happily live in medium density housing – for example terraced housing or small apartment buildings – in other cities in contrast to New Zealand’s seemingly national aversion to the lifestyle. 

Architectural historian Bill McKay (Image: Supplied)

Currently, Auckland Council is seeking feedback on draft plans for changes to the Auckland Unitary Plan, which can be accessed on its website. The new regulations mean that MDRS will be the norm, and the council will have to apply to central government for exceptions to the rule. Exceptions to the new standards will be made on “qualifying matters”, which may include infrastructure and natural hazard concerns that prevent practical implementation of MDRS, as well as “special character” provisions for areas of historic value. 

Under the council’s current draft plan to bring Tāmaki Makaurau in line with the new MDRS, most of Auckland’s 21,000 “special character” residences will still be protected by two-storey, single dwelling restrictions. However, some areas of city fringe suburbs will no longer qualify for “special character” protections. At a media briefing on April 19, John Duguid, general manager of plans and places for Auckland Council, noted that around 4,000 to 5,000 historic homes could be rezoned to the new MDRS. 

Some are angry about the proposed changes, claiming the move will “[destroy] the character of this city”. 

Comments left under an NZ Herald Facebook post on the proposed zoning changes.

But McKay disagrees. “You hear people railing against losing streets and villas. That’s not going to happen. Streets with real character and consistency… they’re OK.” He points out that most of the areas lined with historic villas will likely stay the same, like the area of Murdoch Road in Grey Lynn, which is currently within the protected “special character” area in the draft plans. McKay doesn’t believe we’ll lose our heritage, but he does believe that Auckland stands to gain from the new legislation. 

McKay says “our streets are actually quite motley. A lot of older buildings, particularly villas – which were cheap housing when they were built – they’re pretty miserable.” And anyone who’s lived in and around these central fringe suburbs might agree. I lived in Arch Hill, right around the proposed protected zone, and in my observation, the only thing special about many of these “special character” villas was how much mould they could fit in them. Similarly, McKay says he lives on “quite a flash street” around Ponsonby and Herne Bay. However, he’s still “got some pretty shitty houses” in his area. “We do have a mix of villa areas that are pretty poor, and they should be replaced,” says McKay.

Some of the “special character” housing in question around Kingsland / Morningside. (Image: Naomii Seah)

Sonya Milford, who lived in the “special character” area of Ponsonby and Grey Lynn from 2018-2019, agrees with McKay’s sentiment. She describes living in a sleep-out in the backyard of a villa that was so poorly maintained it would flood during winter rains. Milford said she was drawn to the location as it was within walking distance to her work, and she couldn’t take the bus as she had “really bad motion sickness”. Milford notes that her accommodation was unaffordable and of poor quality, but she still rented in the area due to necessity. Her story highlights the issues of equity and accessibility that arise around the current zoning regulations of the in-demand central fringe suburbs. Milford’s first-hand experience with the quality of our “special character” houses means she’s not sad to see some of them go. 

“When you say ‘heritage’, I think ‘heritage for who?’ It’s obviously gentrified and all the Islander families were pushed out. What are we preserving, and how come it has to be every house?… It doesn’t mean enough to me to preserve [heritage] at the cost of us not having affordable housing and clean homes for everyone living in the city.”

Milford now lives in Northcote on the North Shore, as it’s cheaper but still close to her workplace. She says the area she’s in is an example of how higher density housing can work. “It can be done with pretty small amounts of land area… the only inconvenience is maybe parking, but that’s worth it to me,” says Milford

McKay believes the council has done quite a good job of balancing the heritage considerations of the new zoning regulations with the need for higher density housing. He says he’s “pretty happy” with the MDRS rules, and notes that there’s “a lot more five, six-storey apartment buildings around the place now than you’d suspect… and I think they work well”. He cites the apartments springing up along Great North Road as an example. 

“A lot of media commentary is dominated by people like me,” laughs McKay. “Older, white, middle-class people, males as well… fighting for the rights of the people in the leafy suburbs. But you don’t hear a lot from the quiet majority who just want somewhere decent to live.”

McKay’s only worries are that in the current climate there’s a shortage of labour and materials to build the promised medium-density housing, and that quality of the new builds isn’t legislated. 

“Everyone wants good, fast and cheap. But you can only ever get two of those… the political gain is in how much housing has been built and how many dwellings. No one is saying ‘of what quality?’” 

McKay thinks urban design panels would be the best way to ensure quality housing, and he’d like to see them implemented in future Tāmaki developments. In the meantime, he’s OK with the prospect that one in four heritage houses could go. 

“I think that’s necessary to have a city that we can share with everyone.”

Keep going!
Monsteras can be money-makers for houseplant enthusiasts. (Image: Bianca Cross)
Monsteras can be money-makers for houseplant enthusiasts. (Image: Bianca Cross)

SocietyApril 25, 2022

Houseplant hustlers: for some people, money does grow on trees

Monsteras can be money-makers for houseplant enthusiasts. (Image: Bianca Cross)
Monsteras can be money-makers for houseplant enthusiasts. (Image: Bianca Cross)

Interest in houseplants has exploded in recent years – and some green-thumbed individuals have managed to turn their hobby into a lucrative side-hustle.

I’ve gone through many, many houseplants. There was Lily the peace lily, who my flatmates failed to water when I went home for a month. There was Richard the cactus, who flew off my windowsill when I’d neglected to close the window one stormy morning. There were Queen Victorias I, II and III, the maidenhair ferns. And then there were the houseplants who were victims of one-year leases – given away to friends in the process of moving, or simply turfed out onto the street (I’m sorry, Queen Victoria IV). 

For some hapless plant-lovers like myself, houseplants can be a complete drain on one’s finances. Replacing dead houseplants at more than $20 a pop from your local garden centre isn’t the best move for your wallet by the fifth (or sixth, or seventh, or eighth) dead fern. So in a bid to get my houseplant fix for cheap, I turned to the favourite resource of bargain-hunters everywhere – Facebook Marketplace. After endless doomscrolling, mostly of overpriced monsteras and other huge but unaffordable mature plants, I noticed another kind of listing kept popping up: sellers advertising the most adorable wee cuttings of various species for prices starting as low as $5. 

Turns out for those who manage to keep their plants alive and thriving, houseplants can grow – pun intended – from a hobby to a full-blown income stream.

“I’m not very entrepreneurial, but I just thought, well, why not try and make [plants] a side hustle?” says Marie Knowles. “I was already taking the cuttings anyway, so with very little extra effort I could start selling them online and have a little bit of extra money coming in.” 

Knowles is a mother of two young children who currently works part-time in the marketing industry. She says she’s always loved nature and gardening, and thinks of her plants as “a way to bring nature inside”. Knowles says she’s always collected houseplants, but didn’t get serious about it until around eight years ago, when she moved back to Aotearoa from the UK to settle down. Now, she’s a self-described “plantaholic” and says her friends and family encouraged her to start sharing cuttings between them, which eventually led to Knowles selling cuttings online. 

Marie Knowles with her prized Philodendron Congo which she grew from a “half dead young plant” found in the bargain bin for $5. (Photo: Supplied)

Nishu Sachdeva has a very similar story. She’s also a mother of two young children, and started collecting plants for herself when she settled into her current house. A forensic biology technician by day, Sachdeva began trading plants in the evenings, and now she’s on maternity leave has expanded her plant hustle to include dried floral bouquets. 

“If you’re just at home and you want side income, why not?” she says. “My day job doesn’t pay me huge money, so it’s good to have that side income… it makes you feel more productive. I have control over this income.” 

Sachdeva specialises in “unkillable” plants, selling mostly to her South Auckland community. She has different varieties of pothos, monsteras and philodendrons which she’ll take a few cuttings from, selling up to 60 baby cuttings at a time at a price range of $5 to $20 per plant.

The income varies week-to-week, says Sachdeva, but it adds up to a couple of extra thousand dollars a year, and she puts the money she earns from the enterprise into investments. “I feel like I’m doing it for my future,” she says. 

Nishu Sachdeva with her young children and a monstera from her plant collection. (Photo: Supplied)

Kayden Odendaal, a 22-year-old plant enthusiast in the insurance business, started off with just four plants, but over the years he’s grown his collection to around 100. “[The plants] were taking up a lot of space,” he laughs. “That was the main drive for me. And obviously being able to earn money is a big thing.”

Odendaal, Sachdeva and Knowles all mentioned the potential to make big money in the plant business. Plants that were difficult to grow and plants with rare features would fetch the most money, like the variegated monstera that sold for $5,000 on Trade Me in 2020

“I do want to get into more plants, like the variegated ones,” says Sachdeva. “But then the business [might] change as soon as you buy a very expensive cutting.” That’s why she sticks to her “unkillable” species, where the market price tends to be more steady.

It’s “the basic economics of supply and demand”, says Knowles, who notes that because some of these houseplants are easy to grow, rare varieties may start out at eye-watering prices and then come down in value as more people begin to propagate them. That’s why she’s planning on propagating more hoyas, which have been grown and traded within her family for three generations. They’re not the easiest plant to grow, Knowles admits, which means that if she propagates them she can “put in the same amount of effort as I do with common plants, but get a greater return”. 

Some of Knowles’ plant collection, including a hoya (top). (Photo: Supplied)

But although there’s the potential for a good return on investment in the houseplant trade, it’s not the main reason Odendaal, Sachdeva or Knowles give for their indoor gardening enthusiasm. 

Sachdeva grew all her own houseplants from cuttings, and she says that’s the most rewarding part. “They just grow and they bring me so much joy. Everyday I look at them and there’s new leaves and new growth – it’s quite exciting.” She admits that without plants, her home feels “very bland and empty”. 

Odendaal feels the same way. “It’s a lot of love and attention you’ve really got to give [the plants],” he says. What drew him to the hobby was “really being able to watch something grow”. Odendaal’s been working at home since September last year, which means he’s had a lot more time to devote to the hobby. “My plants are my escape,” he says. 

Kayden Odendaal with his plant collection. (Photos: Supplied)

For Odendaal, selling plant cuttings is really about building a community around shared interests. He’s started his own Instagram page for selling his plants, and says “it’s a lot about sharing knowledge with other plant enthusiasts”. 

And it seems there are more plant enthusiasts now than ever. Knowles says she’s noticed the houseplant community growing since the pandemic began. “People feel isolated in their homes away from the outdoors for sure,” she says. “Bringing nature inside [feels] like gaining back some sort of normality.” Houseplants are also “inherently home-based”, she notes, which means people don’t have to go anywhere to participate in the hobby. She suspects the extra time spent at home has contributed to the increase in interest around houseplants.

Some of Sachdeva’s personal plant collection. (Photo: Supplied)

For Knowles, her houseplants are also essential for her mental health. She suffers from anxiety, and says that “getting my hands in the soil and connecting physically with nature is literally grounding”. 

“When I’m selling my plants, I feel like I’m sharing the plant love,” she says. Her listing on Facebook Marketplace touts “Baby houseplants for sale”, which she says is exactly how people like her feel about their plants. “They’re babies, because they’re something that you can nurture.” 

“It’s quite an egalitarian [hobby] too,” says Knowles. “It’s something that everyone can be involved in. There’s newbies getting into [plants] as well, which I think is great. I’d love for there to be more sharing of tips and advice.” 

Some of Sacdeva’s “unkillable” plants ready for sale. (Photo: Supplied)

So what are these enthusiasts’ top tips for growing your own houseplant collection? 

Don’t overwater your plants,” emphasises Sachdeva during our morning call. That afternoon, Knowles repeats the same advice just as emphatically. I laugh before remembering the slow death of Celeste, my kalanchoe. Knowles reassures me it’s a common mistake. Perhaps with a little more patience, there’s still hope for my own burgeoning plant collection yet. 

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