A well-known pub and a site soon to be taken over by former Conservative Party leader Colin Craig are among the latest group of new housing areas planned for Auckland.

Building Minister Nick Smith and Mayor Len Brown have announced the second to last tranche of Special Housing Areas (SHAs), under the three-year agreement the Government and the council signed to tackle the city's housing shortage.

The list of 14 SHAs made public on Thursday includes The Gables tavern in the exclusive suburb of Herne Bay.

The exclusive Auckland suburb of Herne Bay is to lose its local pub to a housing development.
Brett Phibbs
The exclusive Auckland suburb of Herne Bay is to lose its local pub to a housing development.

The 2300-square-metre site on the corner of Kelmarna Ave and Jervois Rd will become a development of 70 houses.


The Auckland Housing Accord, signed in October 2013, allows for the fast-tracking of housing areas which also must contain a component of affordable houses, defined as 75 per cent of the Auckland median house price.


Included on the latest list is a site on Brightside Road, on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, which is in the process of being purchased by Colin Craig.

The former Conservative leader owns property management company Centurion, and it's understood to be his first foray into property development.

Up to 50 homes will be built on the 4000sqm site, adjacent to the New World supermarket.


Smith and Brown announced the latest tranche of SHAs at the site of one of them, a 1700 square metre property next to the Panmure railway station where up to 50 new homes are to be built.


The new SHAs will provide more than 4500 new homes across Auckland, Smith said.

In total 120 SHAs have now been agreed, with a combined potential yield of 52,000 new houses.

The scheme has been criticised for being slow to produce actual finished homes.

Of the potential 52,000 around 2000 had been consented so far, Smith said.

"It's inevitable with the SHAs that there is a delay from the time the fast zoning process is approved to the point where the structural plan is done, where the roads, where the services will go…to getting the building consent and getting the actual homes built," he said.

However building consent numbers had grown from less than 4000 annually when the Housing Accord was signed to over 9300 last year, the minister said.

It was clear there was a residential building boom happening in Auckland "and a large part of that is off the back of the Housing Accord and SHAs initiative", he said.

Labour housing spokesman Phil Twyford said it was time Smith gave up on his "failed and fanciful" Special Housing Areas and and embarked on a massive government-backed building programme to flood the market with affordable homes for first home buyers.

"Thanks to Dr Smith, Auckland does not have a shortage of Special Housing Areas. But under his tenure, the city's housing shortfall is north of 30,000 and getting worse by 5000 every year."

The number of houses the SHAs had so far produced was woeful when Auckland needed 14,000 new homes a year just to keep up with growth, Twyford said.