Business North May 2021

80 | Generation Homes Auckland North BUILDING Meeting the needs of evolving market T Karen Phelps Group builders, such as Generation Homes, have a key role to play in addressing the housing shortage. G eneration Homes Auckland North has seen a surge in demand post-Covid-19 lockdowns for home and income properties. Managing director Peter Suckling says the product is appealing to a range of buyers including those with extended family, people wanting to get into the property market and investors. “People might choose to live in the main dwelling and rent the smaller one out, rent both out or use for extended family. People can also help their children into the property market by living in one and their children take the other. It is a flexible solution that suits a lot of different needs,” says Peter who is him- self building a home and income property for his parents to live in one unit while his family lives in the other. As home and income specialists, Generation Homes Auckland North has a lot of experience in building these products and knows the right design and plan to fit a site to meet regulatory requirements and get the client the best end result, says Peter. Generation Homes Auckland North is offering house and land packages for home and income properties in Riverhead and its Woodlands Rise development in Orewa. It is also building the products on people’s own sites where they might already have a family home and space for an extra unit. A home and income showhome will be open mid 2021. Coupled with Generation Homes Auckland North’s promise to offer guaranteed move in dates, which has resulted in a 100% record in delivering on time, it’s been a recipe for suc- cess and the business is busy with enquiries, says Peter. “Combined with fixed price contracts this makes planning so much easier for our clients. Once the slab is poured we guarantee a move in date and this gives our customers certainty and we are proud to always have kept to our promise.” Generation Homes CEO Kevin Atkinson says the present market boom is the result of a perfect storm: low interest bank deposit returns, low interest borrowing rates and a housing shortage. “Kiwis have a love affair with housing and are comfortable with it as an investment proposition. With a housing shortage in New Zealand they view it as a low risk so it’s no surprise people are shifting their money into housing. Also people are choosing to build their own home due to the shortage of listings.” He says that group builders, such as Generation Homes, have a key role to play in addressing our housing shortage and also the recovery of the New Zealand economy. He says a key issue is that New Zealand’s resi- dential building market is fractured at present with a large number of small players. Kevin is adamant that it is not wise to simply reply on bringing more people in to build but that the focus needs to be on creating efficien- cies in the build process as well. “Large group housing companies have the ability to offer real efficiencies when it comes to building because volume of building can only be achieved by companies with good systems and process in place along with stable supply lines,” he says. “Time is one of the biggest costs in resi- dential building so finding efficiencies in the process is one real way to bring costs down.” Combined with group buying power and nationwide presence Generation Homes can markedly assist New Zealand’s need to build more houses quickly, he says. Making themost For ideas and information about our windows and doors talk to MDAluminium on 09 836 6922