Minor dwelling in south auckland

[pawpaw44]

Minor Dwelling in south auckland
I currently am staying in a double garage with sleep out and bathroom(shower and toilet)


This is at the back of my parents property which is on over 800 sqm


This is also a corner section so there is a front driveway to the main house on one street and another driveway leading to the garage on the other street.


Just wondering if anyone has recently built any minor dwellings and which would be best to either do up the current garage or have this removed and place a minor dwelling.


i mean i already have all the features for a minor dwelling and the garage is currently around 75sqm.


also if anyone can recommend companies that would be of any use??

[MAXNZ]

+1 to hear any advice on the minor dwellings... Looking to buy 4 beddie (south or west auckland) but want to extend by adding minor dwelling. Only looking to add something up to 60 Sq.M. so no Resource Consent is required. Considering 1 or 2 bed, living, bathroom + kitchenette type of thing. Any advice is appreciated... What consents required, how costly could it be, would it be better to extend one wing of the house or add as stand alone unit/flat.. etc.

[ivanp]

I'm in process of adding minor dwellings in two of my places in West Auckland - standalone 3-bdrm dwellings, 65 sqm.

Some hints:
1) 60sqm is maximum area of minor dwelling allowed in Manukau district plan, council planners won't allow or even discuss any larger. If you want larger, that's not minor dwelling, that is a full subdivision (with its own requirements and costs). Same 60sqm in North Shore. Waitakere district plan allows up to 65sqm, but they charge twice higher infrastructure growth charge for 65sqm
2) "minor household unit" (in district plans) is just a different term the same - for a minor dwelling

The costs are :
1) architects to prepare plans and consent application (and any engineering reports required in process, such as CCTV for connections, etc) - could be around $7-10K, it depends
2) Watercare fees and Watercare infrastructure growth contribution - $9K
3) Auckland council fees for consent - around $2-4K
4) Auckland council infrastructure growth contribution - about $9K for 60sqm, at least twice more for 65sqm
5) build contract - it depends
6) (potentially) repairs of existing connections of the main house if found by council inspectors (I had to replace wastewater connection from the main house to the road this week because it was badly damaged over previous decades).

Alternative to a minor dwelling is a sleepout, in Manukau you can build up 80 sqm as far as I remember (that is total area for all utility buildings including any garage or sheds, so you can't have both a 80sqm sleepout and a garage).

Key differences between the two:
1) sleepout legally can include any number of bedrooms, living area, bathroom/toilet, but not a kitchen, just kitchenette (basically some cupboards with benchtop, and a sink, but no oven or cooktop allowed). If you want proper kitchen (with oven, hobs, etc), that's only allowed in Minor Dwelling.
2) you can't rent a sleepout separately from the main house (according to Auckland council rules)
3) minor dwelling has the contribution fees as I mentioned above (none are charged for sleepout)
4) minor dwelling has some extra requirements to be met, such as parking place, outdoor living space on northern side, and service court, etc; sleepout has none of these requirements.

[PTILoveYou]

"Best to use the money and use as deposit to buy another property."
- Ron Hoy Fong

[MAXNZ]

"Best to use the money and use as deposit to buy another property."
- Ron Hoy Fong

Unlikely in Auckland market... for couple of reasons

Building cash flow: putting 120-150k towards minor dwelling only requires 30-40k deposit and renting it out for $250-350 a week gives you 8-10%+ yield on the dwelling (4 week vacancy). It is unlikely yield for any stand alone house around Auckland, maybe a different area but not in Auckland. Also 30-40k deposit will buy nothing in Auckland anyway..

Own use: another reason is if it is build for own use - guest house or extended family... least ownership cost comparing to buying another house.

[PTILoveYou]

Well if the land is big enough to put a minor dwelling on it, it costs more to buy, so worse yield.

Also if you want to subdivide it further in the future, you have to remove the minor dwelling.

Anyways, there are many different ways to invest, each have pros and cons.


If I were to do minor dwellings, I would do it in a recession when builders are cheap. Now is too expensive.

[ivanp]

1) 600sqm of land are required to put a minor dwelling on it, 800sqm are required for subdividing, so these are two different sorts of sections - so far I didn't see anyone putting a minor dwelling on subdividable property (it's a waste of money).

2) I agree that it makes sense to put minor dwellings in a recession when builders may be cheaper, but the problem is there are no minor dwellings under Unitary Plan, so it will not be possible to build minor dwellings in next recession anymore. 600sqm properties in Waitakere and Manukau are still not subdividable under Unitary Plan, so they will be left with single house and worse yield forever...

[elguapo]

"Best to use the money and use as deposit to buy another property."
- Ron Hoy Fong

Ron Hoy Fong has done minor dwellings......

[PTILoveYou]

1) 600sqm of land are required to put a minor dwelling on it, 800sqm are required for subdividing, so these are two different sorts of sections - so far I didn't see anyone putting a minor dwelling on subdividable property (it's a waste of money).

2) I agree that it makes sense to put minor dwellings in a recession when builders may be cheaper, but the problem is there are no minor dwellings under Unitary Plan, so it will not be possible to build minor dwellings in next recession anymore. 600sqm properties in Waitakere and Manukau are still not subdividable under Unitary Plan, so they will be left with single house and worse yield forever...

My biggest concern would be the time it takes to build a minor dwelling.

Some investors get stressed out during the building phase, and if they use the same amount of time just to buy another rental, potentially their time is better spent on buying more properties than develop.

But it all depends on the financial capability of the investor, as everyone is different.

[PTILoveYou]

Ron Hoy Fong has done minor dwellings......

Now he recommends against them.

[Courham]

Slight aside. no one last night saw the articles on TV 3 news of a person build a 25m2 portable sleepout in Auckland for $44K without resource consent- neighbour, who couldn't even see it complained and cost an additional $10K to remove yesterday

[aay]

I'm in process of adding minor dwellings in two of my places in West Auckland - standalone 3-bdrm dwellings, 65 sqm.

Some hints:
1) 60sqm is maximum area of minor dwelling allowed in Manukau district plan, council planners won't allow or even discuss any larger. If you want larger, that's not minor dwelling, that is a full subdivision (with its own requirements and costs). Same 60sqm in North Shore. Waitakere district plan allows up to 65sqm, but they charge twice higher infrastructure growth charge for 65sqm
2) "minor household unit" (in district plans) is just a different term the same - for a minor dwelling

The costs are :
1) architects to prepare plans and consent application (and any engineering reports required in process, such as CCTV for connections, etc) - could be around $7-10K, it depends
2) Watercare fees and Watercare infrastructure growth contribution - $9K
3) Auckland council fees for consent - around $2-4K
4) Auckland council infrastructure growth contribution - about $9K for 60sqm, at least twice more for 65sqm
5) build contract - it depends
6) (potentially) repairs of existing connections of the main house if found by council inspectors (I had to replace wastewater connection from the main house to the road this week because it was badly damaged over previous decades).

Some good info here! I'm just finishing up a minor dwelling in Henderson, and plan on doing 2 other minor dwellings in Henderson this year. By the way, watercare fees are $12800! I know it's insane. I find minor dwellings to be quite good because now a newly built 2 bedroom minor dwelling in Henderson can be rented out for $400, so that's ~$20,000 a year at $110,000 cost to build, that's a return of ~17%

[elguapo]

Some good info here! I'm just finishing up a minor dwelling in Henderson, and plan on doing 2 other minor dwellings in Henderson this year. By the way, watercare fees are $12800! I know it's insane. I find minor dwellings to be quite good because now a newly built 2 bedroom minor dwelling in Henderson can be rented out for $400, so that's ~$20,000 a year at $110,000 cost to build, that's a return of ~17%

When I did mine the watercare fee was hundreds, and it wasn't that long ago! Personally I think they are a sound, low risk strategy, but the cost is really quite out of hand without great care. Completing for $110k is good going these days.

[aay]

If you think about it... $30,000 (27% of the cost) is for council, watercare fees/contributions.

[ivanp]

I reckon $12800 was a Watercare fee for a full dwelling (in subdivision).
For minor dwellings they charge 2/3 of it, which was under $9K.
I've paid it just recently (this month).

Exact Watercare fees were as follows:
- $8,050 - infrastructure growth charge - Metropolitan area reduced IGC for MHU under 65m2
- $563 - new 15mm water meter
- $146 - water and/or wastewater connection processing.

$110K to build a minor dwelling is unrealistic these days, unless it's very very basic Skyline gottage or something similar, which looks more like a garage, rather than a house.

Also $400 rent for a 2-bedroom minor dwelling looks unreal unless it's in North Shore or some really good part of West (Te Atatu Peninsula?). I'm not aware of rents in Henderson though.