Tāmaki Regeneration

Enhanced property asset management for a thriving community

Download the full case study here.

Background

Tāmaki Regeneration, jointly owned by the New Zealand Government and Auckland Council, is leading a first-of-its-kind urban regeneration programme along the Tāmaki Estuary in Auckland. Tāmaki Regeneration provides a portfolio of community housing for a multicultural community of 18,000 residents and has a mandate to generate new homes for the community. It is anticipated the number of residents living within the Tāmaki area will increase from 18,000 to 40,000 in the next 20 years.

“The survey designed by SPM Assets provided up-to-date asset data. Given context this data became information. Applied to our business it then became knowledge. Given insight, it became a capital works-programme that will ensure our existing and future homes meet our Levels of Service for families to live in.” Tracy Massam, Asset Manager, Tāmaki Regeneration

The goal

Tāmaki Regeneration has four important objectives:

• Social transformation: Supporting Tāmaki residents and families to gain the skills, knowledge and employment opportunities to progress their lives.
• Economic development: Strengthening the local economy and unlocking the potential of the Tāmaki area to enable a prosperous community.
• Place-making: Creating safe and connected neighbourhoods that support the social and economic development of Tāmaki’s community.
• Housing resources: Optimising the use of land and existing housing stock to effectively support and deliver social and economic results, including progressing private housing development and better state housing options.

One of the key strategies to achieve these objectives is to demolish 2,800 old state homes and replace them with 10,500 new, warm and dry healthy homes over the next 20 years. This includes building affordable homes, KiwiBuild homes, and private market homes – and returning 2,500 homes to the community housing portfolio. One of the key requirements throughout the redevelopment process has been to ensure our existing and future homes meet our Levels of Service for families to live in.

The challenges

Tāmaki Regeneration’s needs were both complex and multi-faceted in terms of information, reporting, and communication requirements. Basic information on the portfolio was received during the transfer from Housing New Zealand in 2016, which led to an initial set of property condition and performance assessments being carried out. It nonetheless recognised the need to progressively improve the quality of the information to inform portfolio development priorities, maintenance planning, and to address compliance and reporting requirements.
Tāmaki Regeneration also recognised the need for a proven and industry-based asset management survey solution to provide the data and information required to develop a programme of work. The survey outcomes had to address the following key areas:

• Property Condition Assessments aligned with the NAMS-based approach.
• Asbestos screening assessments aligned with the WorkSafe Approved Code of Practice.
• Healthy Homes Compliance as defined by the Healthy Homes Guarantee Act.

Tāmaki Regeneration’s programme of work needed to be developed on scale and address known compliance, condition, performance, asbestos, and quality issues. The overarching objective was to provide warm, dry and safe homes for families to live, work and thrive. This information would also need to be communicated to Tenancy Managers and contractors: especially around asbestos and other health and safety requirements, to satisfy legal obligations. This included providing business-as-usual compliance reporting for:

• Insulation Statements for Tenancy Agreements.
• Asbestos Management Reports.
• Property Summary Reports for Tenancy Managers – including known quality issues.

Our solution

SPM Assets has supported Tāmaki Regeneration’s strategies since 2015 by providing software and services to meet its evolving needs. It conducted property condition surveys in 2016 and developed a range of business and planning reports.

In 2018 Tāmaki Regeneration selected SPM Assets again to conduct an enhanced property condition and performance assessment, including the following specific components:

• Providing employment and skills development opportunities for surveyors from the Tāmaki community, via Tāmaki’s Job and Skills Hub.
• Survey methodology specification to link the required property condition, asbestos and Healthy Homes compliance to survey content.
• Individual property surveys to capture the required information while minimising the impact on tenants.
• A mobile-enabled solution using the core SPM Assets software to efficiently capture robust data, and make it accessible to managers and decision-makers.
• Assess the level of compliance with the Healthy Homes Standard, and associated compliance costs.

Following the successful delivery of the property condition and performance assessment, SPM Assets collaborated with Tāmaki Regeneration to produce a prioritised works programme to address known compliance, condition, asbestos, and quality shortfalls.

The benefits

The SPM Assets solution provided the following key benefits to Tāmaki Regeneration and to the wider Tāmaki community:

• A cost-effective way to collect, process, and deliver essential data and information on its portfolio of 2,500 properties.
• Limited impact on Tāmaki Regeneration tenants and their families, with individual surveys typically completed in less than 45 minutes, and the entire portfolio surveyed in less than two months.
• A robust programme of work developed within three months of survey completion, allowing Tāmaki Regeneration to confidently prioritise portfolio development and generate compliance reporting.
• High level of confidence in housing asset data and maintenance plans because of the underlying uses of industry reference and lifecycle information.
• Improved health and safety outcomes for tenants.

Creating jobs and skills

SPM Assets recruited a quarter of the property surveyors from the Tāmaki community, via Tāmaki Regeneration’s Job and Skills Hub. Two of the Tāmaki surveyors continued on to full-time employment following the survey project, contributing to Tāmaki Regeneration’s goals of social transformation and economic development. 

Tāmaki Regeneration recognised for its social housing success

In 2019, Tāmaki Regeneration won an award from the Australasian Housing Institute (AHI) for its efforts to engage with tenants. Tāmaki Housing was a co-winner in the Excellence in Social Housing category. The awards provide an opportunity to showcase social housing success stories and highlight the difference social housing professionals make to people’s lives. 

Next steps

Tāmaki Regeneration continues to work with SPM Assets as a partner through specialist advice, asset data management, and specialist reporting. The planned future improvements include:

• Enhanced asbestos management reporting so contractors can access property specific asbestos information live and onsite.
• Identifying and scoping a programme of works to address any Levels of Service gaps including Healthy Homes compliance, asset renewal, and preventative maintenance
• Continued support to help Tāmaki Regeneration measure, comply and plan for the ever-changing community housing industry, specifically related to compliance.

As an example of the innovation and benefits resulting from the partnership, SPM Assets is working with Tāmaki Regeneration to create a solution using QR codes to instantly provide up-to-date key property specific information. Tāmaki Regeneration has identified information transparency with its community as a key priority, and the QR code solution will be a key enabler. Tenants, contractors, and other stakeholders will be able to scan a unique code using a modern mobile phone to access property information.

An example of a QR code that will be used to communicate necessary data to stakeholders.