Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There’s a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they’re all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.

If you look around the newer streets of Churton Park in Wellington, where the above picture was taken, you’ll be reminded of the words of this song by Malvina Reynolds (if you can remember the 1960s).

The general trend in housing over the last 40 years or so has been for sections (lots) to get smaller and houses to get bigger.  This means that yards have got smaller and people are closer to their neighbours than used to be the case; sometimes only a couple of metres separates one house from another.

Is this a good thing?  Not if you like privacy and greenery around you.  Once upon a time kids liked to play in their parents’ gardens, although with nearly every kid having their own computer in their rooms now, that is much less the case.

This is yet another aspect of the new housing proposals being promulgated by property developers in Waikanae that is cause for concern: higher density congestion and visually dull streets.  This and other reasons given earlier should make clear to our elected representatives why existing residents are unhappy.

Fortunately, demand for housing in the Wellington region is keeping pace with supply and the demand itself isn’t great (unlike in Auckland), but that could change in a few years as Auckland becomes less and less affordable.