New homes with star treatment

When prospective buyers walk into a new Northcote Development apartment, they should be able to feel the 6 Homestar difference.

The apartments in Lake Road and Fraser Avenue, being developed by NZ Living, are warmer, drier, healthier, quieter and cheaper to run than a typical new home built to the Building Code – leading examples of density done well in one of Auckland’s newest large-scale housing developments, led by Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities.

The Green Building Council runs Homestar, a national residential rating tool to evaluate homes in terms of their warm, healthy, sustainable and efficiency qualities. A typical New Zealand home, built to the current Building Code, would generally achieve a 3-4 rating, say Homestar. However, the Homestar scale begins at 6 as the standard for a warm, dry, healthy home, with a maximum rating of 10.

With Kāinga Ora committing to building all new public housing to at least a 6 Homestar rating and a requirement of its development partners to do the same within its large-scale developments, it sets a new standard for housing in New Zealand, including medium-density projects like the Northcote apartments.

Medium density housing, such as terraces and walk-up apartments, make up a significant proportion of new builds across Kāinga Ora’s large-scale developments in Auckland.

A mix of housing types is needed to meet strong demand, make efficient use of available land, and keep costs down.

“I think it’s pretty clear that building higher density housing, particularly in places like Auckland, is part of the solution,” says New Zealand Green Building Council director of market transformation, Sam Archer.

“I know it’s not culturally part of the ‘Kiwi way’ with the quarter-acre dream but I guess that leads on to the necessity of it. If we’re going to build density, then it has to be done well.”

Archer says it’s “fantastic” that Kāinga Ora has set a minimum standard of 6 Homestar for new builds - meaning more Kiwis will live in quality housing and experience the 6 Homestar difference.

Archer says Kāinga Ora’s leadership will raise the bar across the building industry: “The commitment to Homestar is showing leadership around the country in terms of building houses that are higher quality.”

Archer says specific considerations come into play when building large-scale medium density housing. High-quality sound insulation between units is important for “acoustic privacy” and to minimise street noise.

“Quite often apartments are around busy roads so, again, making sure they’re soundproofed properly so people can sleep at night [is important].”

Keeping homes warm with high-quality insulation tends to be easier in medium density buildings but achieving adequate ventilation and reducing summer overheating is more challenging.

Efficient heating, higher than code insulation levels, water efficiency and moisture minimisation are what typically make up the 6 Homestar standard.

“These things we ask for in Homestar are not ‘nice to haves’, they’re necessary,” Archer says.

All of these standards can be achieved while keeping houses at an affordable level; Archer says the average cost of construction is only 1.5-2 per cent higher than a Building Code-compliant dwelling – and the cost can easily be offset by reducing the size of a house by 2-3 per cent.

“It’s better to have a slightly smaller house that's decent.”

Most importantly, Archer adds, the real value of 6 Homestar is more than a number; the long-term effects of building warmer, drier, healthier homes include better wellbeing and quality of life for the people living in them.

- This content was supplied by Kāinga Ora