The Toomath building before the fire on Sunday. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
Individuals should not buy apartments in Wellington City due to rising costs for earthquake strengthening and insurance, a central Wellington city councillor says.
The comments come after a heritage building in the city was gutted by fire after more than 20 years of wrangling over the owner's earthquake strengthening responsibilities.
Iona Pannett said the new government needed to review laws around earthquake strengthening which had been unworkable since they were put into place in 2016.
"We've known for a long time that this was a problem and the legislation that was passed in 2016 was never going to work," Pannett said.
Wellington city councillor Iona Pannett. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
"We need to look at what we can afford, focus on the public buildings because obviously we have to ensure public safety. But there needs to be a more detailed risk analysis when we're talking about private buildings.
"The insurers are getting quite bullish, particularly with climate-related disasters so, even if the government does review, the insurers can say 'well we're still going to keep charging you or we won't cover for you' but this does mean that people who don't cover for earthquake risk are breaking the law. It's a very difficult situation."
The late-Victorian era Toomath's building on Ghuznee Street caught fire on Sunday afternoon.
No-one was injured in the blaze but the building was in such disrepair, it was too unstable to enter.
An Urban Search and Rescue team used a drone to see inside and found significant structural damage.
The building had been subject to quake-prone building notices for over 20 years and had stood empty since 2019.
The blaze on Sunday. Photo: Supplied / Harry Meadows
Since then, the neglected property had been swamped by graffiti, vines and the detritus of squatters who came and went from the back of building which faced onto a Cuba Street car park.
Police said they wanted to talk to four young people - three boys and one girl, aged about 10-15 - who were seen entering the building prior to the fire.
Felix Wenzel of neighbouring store Capital Fishing said it was a shame the owners and council had not been able to come to an agreement and had let the site deteriorate.
"The council's got to bend a little bit I think. It gets to a point where eventually it's just going to get pulled down anyway because it's so deteriorated. It's just frustrating that there was no decisions being made," Wenzel said.
In response to the fire, Wellington mayor Tory Whanau said the city council wanted to look at the way it managed heritage buildings.
Whanau said her priority was to rebuild and revitalise the city and she knew the public would like the heritage look to be retained where possible.
"There are a number of us on council who would like to look at the way we can manage heritage buildings. Whether we need to change legislation so we can work through difficult buildings with earthquake prone issues," she said.
Wellington mayor Tory Whanau said the city council wanted to look at the way it managed heritage buildings. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The fire came less than a fortnight after the council announced a multi-million dollar blow-out in the cost of strengthening and redeveloping Wellington Town Hall.
The $182 million project, which was already subjected to a nearly $40m cost increase in 2022, would now cost an additional $70m-$147m to complete.
In April, the council unveiled plans for the $188m strengthening rebuild of Wellington Library - Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui - which was due to reopen in 2026.
Pannett said the local or central government had to look at how much it could afford to support private owners who were required to strengthen buildings as a matter of public safety.
"There is a loan scheme in place but it is not enough to cover all the costs so there does need to be some grant funding given the benefits to public safety," Pannett said.
Pannett said, in the current environment, renting long term just made better sense for inner city living.
"It's better that they're either maintained by the state or the city so we've got social housing, which we will need to strengthen too. Or you get institutional investors.
"People of course can choose to [buy] but I wouldn't because of the cost," she said.