Shocking: Completely wrecked-old-state house on prime 1.1 million-dollar land

It’s the same same but completely different; walk along the waterfront from St. Heliers to Bastion Point and you will see some luxurious homes and high-rise buildings on multi-million-dollar land, and you will see some nice people out walking their poodles, etc; now walk up the hill through Bastion Point to Kupe St. Orakei and you will see similar multi-million-dollar land, but that’s as similar as it gets. You won’t see luxurious homes on this multi-million-dollar land, you will see run down and derelict state housing, some of which is owned by Housing New Zealand and some owned by Ngati Whatua; you won’t see nice people out walking their poodles, you will see tattooed thugs out walking their pitbull terriers.

One thing that is quite stark about this chalk and cheese situation is the fact that you will see tour buses proudly showing off the waterfront from St. Heliers to Mission Bay, and you will see busloads of tourists being taken up to Bastion Point, but you won’t see them being taken along Kupe St; I wonder why that is? Perhaps, just perhaps it has got something to do with hiding the gaping holes in our race relations; the reality of what we don’t want the world to see; the failed anti-utopian welfare state at work, but that’s another story.

About five years ago I walked along Kupe St—something I would not advise as it isn’t exactly the safest neighbourhood—and was really shocked to see the gutted state house below.

At the time I questioned how can this be happening in New Zealand; how can they have a gutted state house sitting on prime real-estate with panoramic views down the Waitemata Harbour to Waiheke; how is this possible? Fast forward five years, and the question still bugged me so I went back there—in the safety of my car this time—and nothing had changed; the gutted house was still there. So this time I took a photo of it and the street number and did a little digging.

The land value of this property is $1,110,000, the capital value is $1,220,000 and land size is 1,743 square metres. Just imagine for a moment that the property was surrounded by luxurious homes—as would be the case in the free market on prime land like that—and not state housing, the property value would be triple its present value. Being concerned about this situation, I phoned Housing New Zealand to find out who owned the property; one person said it was definitely Housing New Zealand property, but then another said it was Ngati Whatua property. I kind of believe the latter person; however, who owns the property is completely irrelevant. If Housing New Zealand owns it, they are doing an exceptionally poor job of managing tax-payer money. If Ngati Whatua own it, they are doing an exceptionally poor job of helping their people.

Either way it is classic example of how welfare and state housing is failing New Zealand. Land of that value must be sold on the open market and the capital reinvested where it is vitally required—and that certainly doesn’t mean more state housing.