| 113 T T Russell Fredric New standards increase building options One of Riverwood Building’s latest projects, being built for an investor building homes for Kāinga Ora. Riverwood Building BUILDING Over recent years, the versatility of Rotorua company Riverwood Building has widened to include a focus on infill housing which includes completing a succession of houses for property investors. Established six years ago, Riverwood Building is owned and run by Mike Phillips and Dan Dufty, who employ a total of six staff including five builders. Their work on infill housing involves constructing additional dwellings on an existing residential site through subdividing a section. “We have developed a number of sections along with other townhouse developments,” Mike says. “There’s not that much land available in Rotorua and whatever land is available, a lot of the group- housing companies have snapped them up. Probably the last two or three years, we’ve been working with investors and people that want to put an extra dwelling on their property, or that need some extra space. “We build both luxury homes and more efficient, smaller-scale projects, allowing us to maintain a consistent pace and constant workflow. We’re currently developing a second-dwelling package to streamline the process further, as this is what we have been concentrating on for much of this year.” Rotorua Lakes Council’s medium density residential standards (MDRS) have helped streamline the planning and consenting of infill housing “which has been positive for what we’ve been doing,” Mike says. “Rotorua needs housing more than most areas. MDRS has changed a whole lot of things; you can put three dwellings on one property without resource consent, and offsets from the boundary a lot closer than they used to be. There’s still restrictions, but there’s definitely a lot more you can do with a property now than what there was two or three years ago.” One of Riverwood Building’s latest projects, being built for an investor building homes for Kāinga Ora, comprises two three-bedroom houses and one two-bedroom house on one section. The design guidelines of the homes require the design to allow for future disabled access if necessary; consequently, the houses feature wider doorways and have bathrooms configured to enable easy conversion. “The planning stage was quite complex, but once the blueprints were finalised it was a pretty straight-forward process,” Mike says. The homes were started in July with completion expected early December. “We’ve tried to stage the construction so we can have the painters on site for as long as we need them and the same for the kitchen joinery; they can just go from one to the next.” Riverwood Building recently completed a house for a different investor, and is currently building a second house, a three-bedroom 85sqm home on a 900sqm section in Werrina Crescent. This section has a four-bedroom home on it, also built by Riverwood Building. “The clients that we’ve been working with have been very happy with our product and the process so far.” With a steady current workload and forward work for next year looking positive, combined with falling interest rates sparking some new enquiries, the Riverwood team is quietly confident about the outlook. “I think there’s definitely more positivity in the air than there was this time last year.” Mike says.“I think with interest rates coming down it should provide people with more financial flexibility to start considering where to invest their money.” ADDRESS: 71 Pururu Street, Rotorua | OFFICE: 07 343 6960 | MOB: 027 490 7522 EMAIL: admin@baydecorators.co.nz | www.baydecorators.co.nz • No Job Too Big or Too Small • Residential or Commercial • Free Quotes • Over 50 Years Experience • Insurance Work • Locally Owned & Operated
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