Simone Woodland gives the Circle Living pitch to a crowd of Wellingtonians. Photo: Lauren Crimp/RNZ
This story has been updated to clarify the possible sale price per square metre.
A co-housing development company is looking to the capital for one of its next intergenerational neighbourhoods.
Circle Living has people already living in one community in Golden Bay. Another is consented and designs were underway for a third site in Nelson.
The company crowdfunded $385,000 in return for a 10 percent stake, which would allow it to find land and assess feasibility across the country.
This week, about 60 Wellingtonians gathered at an innercity co-working space to hear co-founder Simone Woodland's pitch.
What is co-housing?
Take Circle Living's Tākaka development - where Woodland lives - as an example.
Circle Living Tākaka houses 55 adults and 15 children in 34 homes. Photo: Josh Hutchison
Fifty-five adults and 15 kids live in 34 homes, surrounding a common green space, with a community garden.
There's a workshop and common house, which is the community hub, with a shared laundry, kitchen and dining area.
Whānau hold working bees on the land, with rosters for cleaning common spaces and cooking the weekly community meal.
Woodland wanted a village for her children, now aged seven and two, to grow up in - and Circle Living had created that, she said.
"I have a really huge whānau, like a huge family now," she said. "My children have a lot of aunties and uncles and grandparents that are not my blood relatives, and that's a beautiful thing.
"We share meals together, we celebrate together, we cry together. If somebody's sick, food turns up at your door, all of that sort of beautiful stuff that you wouldn't get usually in a subdivision."
Demand in the capital
Woodland said they were exploring a Wellington development, because there was clear demand - three groups of people had expressed interest in creating a community.
"I think it suits people in Wellington," she said. "I think there's a lot of community culture here already - people are already alternative, they're looking for sustainable solutions, looking to be more resilient."
Those in the room were sold.
"I think it's just a much more human way to live," said one.
They liked the idea of community, shared parenting and combining resources.
"Not everybody needs a lawnmower, not everybody needs a spare room in their house," another told RNZ.
Shar Young said she was at an age when she could consider a retirement village, but it didn't appeal.
Circle Living co-founder Simond Woodland. Photo: Josh Hutchison
"A sort of closed gate and all of the same age group - I really like the idea of creating a family situation."
There was a small matter to be tackled - land, which is not easy to come by in the capital.
While the room was awash with enthusiasm, there was another clear concern - affordability.
Woodland said it had a rough estimate sale price of about $10,000 per square metre. So a 75m2 apartment could cost about $750,000.
Attendees told RNZ co-housing did not seem cheaper than other options and was out of reach for many.
"As somebody with not a whole heap of financial security, it makes me a bit sad, because it's kind of dangling something that I would really like to be able to be involved in, but it generally comes with this big financial commitment," Sebine said.
"I think it's out of reach for the kinds of people that would benefit from it the most, because societally, the problems that we face are generally to do with a breakdown in that sort of close-knit community."
Among the crowd were Hannah and Thomas Schickedanz, and Sam Newton. They were part of a group of about 25 families that had been burned by cost before.
Known as Urban Habitat Collective, they had land secured and designs ready for a co-housing complex on Newtown's Adelaide Road.
"We had an amazing apartment that we were going to be into with some amazing people, and then Covid came along and the project just had to fall over, because basically, the price of building the thing doubled in a couple of years," said Newton.
Maybe a fully fledged development company like Circle Living had a better chance of making it happen, he said.
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