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Vincent Holloway: Brooksfield Homes managing director unveils planned housing project for Auckland · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk st B.
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  Speaker 2: Have you ever wondered why all these new townhouses that
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: are popping up everywhere just so ugly? You're not alone
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  Speaker 2: if you're wondering that. One christ Church developer reckons Auckland's
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  Speaker 2: developments are quote awful, and he's bringing his colonial style
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  Speaker 2: new builds to the North. Managing director of Brooksfield's Homes,
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  Speaker 2: Vincent Holloway, is with us.
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  Speaker 3: Hey, Vincent, hi, here the how are you very well?
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  Speaker 2: Thank you?
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  Speaker 3: Now?
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  Speaker 2: Your houses are beautiful? Why aren't developers doing this already?
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  Speaker 3: I'm not sure. It's probably something to do with a
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  Speaker 3: lack of imagination, I'd say, But.
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  Speaker 2: Really, I mean, because all you have to do is
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  Speaker 2: look around, you know, point sheer gray Lin, ponsonbe. You
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  Speaker 2: don't have to imagine that this stuff has been built before,
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  Speaker 2: so why not just replicate it?
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  Speaker 3: Well, that's exactly what we do in a sense. And
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  Speaker 3: when we've started designing and selling homes in Auckland, and
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  Speaker 3: when we've gone up there, we see that a lot
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  Speaker 3: of people want to be living in those years. Is
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  Speaker 3: like point chief Graylin ponson Bee with the cute timber
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  Speaker 3: weatherboard villa. It's obviously out of reach for a lot
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  Speaker 3: of people in terms of price, but people are wanting
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  Speaker 3: that in a home, so you know, we aim to
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  Speaker 3: do that in a smaller scale and a cheaper area.
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  Speaker 2: Basically, the way that you build your townhouses in the
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  Speaker 2: old colonial style is it perhaps more expensive than what
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  Speaker 2: the other developers are doing in the styles of they are.
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  Speaker 3: I wouldn't have thought. So, you know, the whole reason
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  Speaker 3: that a that a classical or a colonial home looks
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  Speaker 3: the way it is is for two reasons. The first,
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  Speaker 3: they cared about the appearance and spend a wee bit
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  Speaker 3: more time and energy on that. But the other reason
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  Speaker 3: is because they lacked a lot of the time, in
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  Speaker 3: places like New Zealand and Australia, really skilled tradesmen and money.
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  Speaker 3: So when you actually look at an old pontsmbe villa,
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  Speaker 3: it's extremely simple in the way that it's usually you know,
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  Speaker 3: a box with possibly a projecting bay window. So they're
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  Speaker 3: a very simple house in the way of construction because
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  Speaker 3: they're just effectively a box. But they're very pretty because
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  Speaker 3: where they were able to, you know, they spend a
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  Speaker 3: little bit of money and time on detail.
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  Speaker 2: Are you going to be limited in where you can
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  Speaker 2: you know, build these houses to maximize your income because
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  Speaker 2: they are single story and in a lot of places
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  Speaker 2: in Auckland now we're going.
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  Speaker 3: Up, well a lot of our homes, we do do
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  Speaker 3: a lot of single story homes, and we do single
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  Speaker 3: story homes with rooms in the attic as well, so
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  Speaker 3: that you know, they'll look like a single story home
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  Speaker 3: but actually be two Yeah, but we also do and
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  Speaker 3: the ones an orphan that we're doing as well in
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  Speaker 3: point she of a two story So they are slightly
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  Speaker 3: different typology than an exactly, you know, exactly a bay villa.
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  Speaker 3: They're a bit smaller, so one hundred to about one
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  Speaker 3: hundred and thirty square meters, and they're also in a
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  Speaker 3: smaller section as well, so we're not too limited. And
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  Speaker 3: I mean the classical classical architecture as well comes in
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  Speaker 3: many shapes and forms. I mean, you know, you go
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  Speaker 3: to Rome or London or Paris and you'll see, you know,
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  Speaker 3: five six story classical townhouses that are absolutely beautiful as well.
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  Speaker 2: Do you reckon? This is the trick to perhaps getting
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  Speaker 2: people on board is a little bit more densification is
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  Speaker 2: that you're able to densify while building in the style
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  Speaker 2: of the suburb.
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  Speaker 3: Definitely. I think if you look around, a lot of
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  Speaker 3: the nimbees have a problem with the ugliness if you
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  Speaker 3: really get into it, not the densification. It's actually really
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  Speaker 3: great to live in a suburb with a diverse mix
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  Speaker 3: of people and more people that does good things for
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  Speaker 3: people that already live there. I think the issue is,
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  Speaker 3: and the issue I have with my neighbors as well,
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  Speaker 3: is that the people building new homes now are building
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  Speaker 3: horrifically ugly things, and now I wants to live next
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  Speaker 3: door to one, and I understand completely.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, tos Hey, listen, Vincent, thank you very much. I
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  Speaker 2: really appreciate your time. That's Vincent Holloway of Brooksfield Homes.
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  Speaker 2: If you look, do me a favor. Do me a favor.
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  Speaker 2: Go and look at Brooksfield Homes and the colonial style
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  Speaker 2: townhouses they're doing, and you'll know what I mean when
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  Speaker 2: you see them. They're sort of like three little, three
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  Speaker 2: little villas stuck together. Now, we're not long ago. Actually,
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  Speaker 2: before babies, I was living in a place very similar
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  Speaker 2: to that. We owned a place and ponds of bee
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  Speaker 2: like that had to sell it obviously, because it was
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  Speaker 2: like child killer situation, the steepness of the stairs and
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  Speaker 2: you know, there's no yard for the kids to run
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  Speaker 2: around and stuff like that. That would have been built
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  Speaker 2: from if my memory serves me correctly, around the turn
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  Speaker 2: of the century, So maybe like nineteen I want to say,
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  Speaker 2: nineteen hundred, maybe nineteen teen at a push, right, and
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  Speaker 2: it basically looks exactly like what Vincent is building. Go
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  Speaker 2: and have a look at it, and then tell me
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  Speaker 2: if you have a problem with that popping up next door,
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  Speaker 2: because I would have no problem. The beautiful little townhouses
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  Speaker 2: much more pretty, as he says, than anything else he's
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  Speaker 2: seeing going up at the moment.
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