LARGE HOUSING IN NEW ZEALAND: ARE BEDROOM AND ROOM STANDARDS STILL GOOD DEFINITIONS OF NEW ZEALAND HOUSE SIZE?

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1 The 9th Autralaian Houing Reearcher Conference February 2016, The Univerity of Auckland LARGE HOUSING IN NEW ZEALAND: ARE BEDROOM AND ROOM STANDARDS STILL GOOD DEFINITIONS OF NEW ZEALAND HOUSE SIZE? Iman Khajehzadeh 1 and Brenda Vale 2 1 and 2School of Architecture, Victoria Univerity of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand 1iman.khajehzadeh@vuw.ac.nz 2brenda.vale@vuw.ac.nz Abtract: Globally cenue and crowding indice ue number of bedroom/room (bedroom/room tandard) a a meaure of houe ize although the average houe ize varie in different countrie. According to Statitic NZ and tudie by BRANZ, in recent year New Zealand houe have changed in term of overall ize and type of room. Reult of a floor plan tudy of 189 New Zealand houe how that new houe have many pecialized room and common room type (leeping bedroom, living room) are alo bigger. Though bathroom/laundrie are never conidered habitable room, in new houe ome are bigger than a bedroom in a 3 bedroom NZ tate houe. The tudy how the floor area of a 3 bedroom houe in New Zealand varie from m 2, thereby quetioning whether exiting cenu data could be underetimating houe ize in New Zealand and other developed countrie. Thi tudy preent evidence to ugget that cenue and crowding indice need more complicated tool for predicting houe ize and dicue what form thee might take. Key word: Room tandard, Bedroom tandard, New Zealand, Houe, Large houing, Crowding index. 1. Introduction: All over the world tatitic are ued to invetigate the condition of houing a an indicator of quality of life (Statitic New Zealand, 2016). Houe ize i regarded a an important parameter for howing the quality of houing a well a reflecting the wealth and ocial apiration of occupant. Meauring the floor area of a houe i a time conuming and expenive proce, and would be very difficult for big cenu ample. It alo require a degree of expert knowledge to have confidence in the reult. To implify thi proce houe ize i normally etimated by uing the reported number of room and bedroom in cenu data. Where room ize are relatively contant thi i reaonable a houe with more room and/or bedroom are bigger than thoe with fewer room and/or bedroom, although a dicued later, thi i not the cae for all houe. According to Statitic New Zealand (2014a) a room i defined a a pace in a dwelling which i ued, or intended for habitation, and i encloed by wall reaching from the floor to the ceiling or roof covering. Regarding floor area, habitable room hould be at leat two metre in height and of at leat four quare metre in area. Service area uch a pantrie, hallway, pa room, walk in wardrobe, corridor, veranda, garage, laundrie, toilet and bathroom are excluded even if they meet the minimum floor area criteria (Statitic New Zealand, 2014a). If a dwelling ha an open plan,

2 then room equivalent hould be counted a if they had wall between them (i.e. a combined living room/dining room/kitchen i counted a 3 room). Thee criteria et the room tandard. Statitic New Zealand (2014a) define a bedroom a a room in a dwelling which i ued, or intended for leeping in. It i alo claed a a bedroom only if it i furnihed a uch and include item uch a a bed or mattre, dreer and chet of drawer even if it i not being ued for leeping at the time of the data collection. Thee criteria et the bedroom tandard. Thi ugget definition of bedroom are highly dependent on the way occupant furnih their houe. The New Zealand houing regulation reprint (Freyberg, 2013) remain the only official document which include ize for ome room type. In thi reprint the minimum acceptable floor area for kitchen of houe with two or fewer reident i 3m 2 and 4m 2 for all other houehold. In addition, the minimum floor area of bedroom in new and exiting houe are repectively 6 and 4.5m 2. There i no tandard for the minimum floor area of other room although there i a minimum height tandard of 2.1m for exiting houe and 2.4m for new houe. Thee minimum dimenion differ from thoe of Statitic New Zealand above. According to Statitic New Zealand (2014b) the average floor area of new New Zealand houe ha increaed from m 2 in 1974 to m 2 in 2011, a 76% increae in 37 year. Studie by BRANZ (Page, 2007) alo how new NZ houe are bigger than in the pat. At the ame time average houehold ize ha decreaed from 3.7 in 1951 to 2.6 in 2011 (Statitic New Zealand, 2008) meaning fewer people are living in larger houe (the latter i termed large houing in thi tudy). Large houing eem to be a new phenomenon not only in New Zealand but alo in other developed countrie uch a Autralia (Fuller and Crawford, 2011). A comparion of New Zealand houe with 15 European countrie (Dol and Haffner, 2010) indicate the former are larger in term of average floor area, average number of room, and average room ize (Table 1). A urvey of 285 owner occupied houe in New Zealand in 2014 indicate ome feature of thee large houe are double/triple garage, double/triple living room, extra bedroom with no uual occupant, pecialized room (i.e. tudy/office, play room, game room/rumpu room, tudio/workhop), and more than one bathroom (including en uite). Country Average floor area Number of room Average room ize New Zealand Luxembourg Denmark Ireland Netherland Italy Autria Sweden France Germany Spain UK Portugal Belgium Greece Finland Table 1 Average floor area, number of room, and room ize for New Zealand and 15 European countrie (ource: Dol and Haffner (2010) and Statitic New Zealand (2014b)). The type of houe are alo changing in New Zealand. According to Statitic New Zealand (2002, 2011 and 2014c) the number of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom houe have repectively decreaed by 7, 2 P age

3 19 and 14% from 1986 to 2013 (Figure 1). Over the ame period, the number of 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 8+ bedroom houe ha increaed by 51, 123, 175 and 100% (Figure 1). Percent of the total NZ houe 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Bedroom 2 Bedroom 3 Bedroom 4 Bedroom 5 Bedroom 6 Bedroom 7 Bedroom Figure 1 Houe ize a a percentage of total NZ houe (Source: Statitic New Zealand (2002, 2011 and 2014c)) Houe ize a determined from the cenu i ued to etimate the level of overcrowding in different houehold type and part of the country. Statitic New Zealand (2014d) define crowding a a theoretical concept about the acceptable number of people per houehold. Crowding in houehold relate to ituation where the number of people reiding in a houehold exceed the ability of the dwelling to provide adequate helter and ervice to it member. Living in overcrowded houe i proved to lead to problem: mental (Harker (2006) and Robert Hughe et al. (2011)), phyical (Harker (2006) and Robert Hughe et al. (2011)) and ocial (Murray (1974), UCL (2010), Reynold et al. (2004), Reynold and Robinon (2005) and Friedman (2010)). Studie by Harker (2006) have hown a negative relationhip between educational achievement and overcrowding. 2. Crowding indice: Crowding indice are tool ued to meaure the level of crowding in the houehold. There are ix common one in ue in the world: The American crowding index (ACI) or People Per Room (PPR), Equivalied Crowding Index (ECI), Canadian National Occupancy Standard (CNOS), Britih bedroom tandard (BBS), Occupancy Rating tandard, and People per floor area index (Goodyear et al. 2011). The ACI i the mot popular index while a verion of CNOS i ued by Statitic New Zealand and in Autralia and eem to be the bet fit for the New Zealand ituation (Goodyear et al. 2011). Crowding indice are uually calculated according to the number of reident, number of room, type of room, ex of reident, and age of reident (Goodyear et al. 2011). Different crowding indice conider room or bedroom number when meauring houe ize and alo different age/gender condition for haring bedroom. Table 1 compare three popular crowding indice. Table 1 how the number of room/bedroom i a key parameter in all thee crowding indice and an inaccurate figure for the number of room/bedroom could lead to mileading crowding rate. Crowding indice are mainly ued for meauring overcrowding although 3 P age

4 they can alo help in meauring under ue of houe, which in turn could be linked to watage of the reource and energy that go into houing. However, it eem that while all crowding indice are relatively precie for meauring overcrowded houe, none are good for meauring the level of underutilization in large houe, a will be dicued below. Houe ize bai Which pair hould hare a bedroom? Couple Young childre n of any gender if Childre n of ame gender if Age which need eparate bedroo m ACI Room NA NA NA NA Severely crowded 1.5<PPR Crowded Crowded 1<PPR<=1. 5 Crowding condition Not crowded 0.5<PPR<=1 Not crowded underutilize d PPR<=0.5 Equal to 1 above Overcrowded tandard tandard Bedroom BBS Ye Age<10 Age<21 Age>21 0 extra 1 extra 1+ extra bedroom bedroom bedroom No extra 2+ extra 1 extra bedroom 1 bedroo bedroom needed, bedroom m CNO Bedroom needed none pare Ye Age<5 Age<18 Age>18 needed S pare 0 extra 1 extra Crowded bedroom bedroom Table 2 Comparion of 3 crowding indice and their categorization of being overcrowded (prepared baed on data from Goodyear et al. (2011)) Underoccupied 2+ extra bedroom 2+ bedroom pare 2+ extra bedroom 3. Large houing and room/bedroom tandard: When conidering large houing, three concern regarding the accuracy of room and bedroom tandard a tool for meauring houe ize emerge. The firt problem i that pecialized room uch a tudy/office/library, game room/rumpu room/gym, play room and tudio/workhop are conidered a a room in the room tandard but they are not conidered a a bedroom() in the bedroom tandard. For intance a houe with 3 bedroom, 1 tudy and 1 game room will be counted a a 3 bedroom houe while a houe with only 3 bedroom and no pecialized room will alo be counted a a 3 bedroom houe although the actual ize and floor area of two houe could be quite different. The econd problem i the preence of multiple bathroom (including en uite) and walkin wardrobe in new NZ houe. Service area are not counted either a room or bedroom in room and bedroom tandard. Our tudie how ome new NZ houe have en uite a large a 14m 2 (Navigation home, 2015), walk in wardrobe a large a 9m 2 (Houe plan, 2016) and laundrie a large a 17m 2 (New Zealand Home and Building, 1979), meaning ome of thee ervice room are bigger than a bedroom, but are never conidered in room and bedroom tandard. The third problem i inconitency between different countrie when dicuing houe ize and crowding. According to the Houing Statitic for European Union 2010 (Dol and Haffner, 2010) the average floor area of UK houe i 82.7m 2 compared to 196.8m 2 for New Zealand in 2008 (Statitic New Zealand, 2014b). A comparion of figure for both countrie in Table 1 reveal that while the average number of room in NZ houe i 34% more than the UK, the average floor area of NZ houe i 71% more than the UK, indicating the number of room i perhap not a good tool for meauring houe ize when it come to comparion between countrie. 4 P age

5 According to Statitic New Zealand (2014e) and baed on cenu 2006 data, while the problem of crowded houing affect 10.4% of NZ houehold, 64.5% of the NZ population live in what might be called large houing (Figure 2). Figure 2 alo how the central Otago ditrict ha the larget and Auckland the mallet houe in New Zealand Auckland city Hamilton city Wellington city Chritchurch Central Otago Dunedin city New Zealand ditrict 2 + bedroom needed (everely crowded) 1 bedroom needed (crowded) No extra bedroom required 1 bedroom pare Figure 2 Percentage of crowded and not crowded houe in New Zealand and it major citie baed on cenu 2006 data (prepared baed on data from Statitic New Zealand (2014e) 4. Study deign: A PhD tudy wa deigned to dicover more about different apect of large houing in New Zealand. Thi wa further broken down into four ub tudie. The firt wa a preliminary tudy of New Zealand houe advertied on Trade me, currently claimed a the leading online marketplace and claified advertiing platform in New Zealand (Trade me, 2014). Thi tudy wa undertaken to find out more about the type of room in New Zealand houe along with overall houe ize and type of furniture. The written decription and random photo of 60 houe (10 each of 1 6 bedroom) were examined to collect information on which to bae the quetionnaire for the main urvey. The number of bedroom wa ued a an indicator of houe ize. The econd ub tudy wa a pilot tudy for the main urvey. A quetionnaire wa prepared baed on the finding of the TradeMe tudy, and wa undertaken by 7 houehold (14 individual) living in Wellington. Of the even participating houehold, 2 were ingle peron (1 living in a mall and 1 living in a large houe), 3 were couple (1 living in a mall and 2 in large houe) and 2 were couple with one child (1 living in a mall and 1 in a large houe). The urvey aked about their houehold compoition, houe feature and furniture. Baed on houe layout, a time ue diary wa prepared for each peron to report the time he/he pent in each room a well a out of home for 14 conecutive day in winter. A full decription of thi tudy and the reult are preented elewhere (Khajehzadeh and Vale, 2015a). 5 P age

6 The third and main tudy wa an on line urvey adminitered in February April 2015 in New Zealand. The urvey wa limited to ingle people, couple and couple with 1 or 2 children living in owner occupied houe. The urvey aked about family member, houe feature (number and name of room), furniture (type, number and location) and time ue in different room of the houe (for each family member for 1 day). Overall 445 houehold took part in the urvey with 285 (64.0%) finihing the houe/furniture part and 212 houehold (538 individual) the time ue part. Reult of thi tudy gave a better undertanding of what large houing mean in term of houe feature and furniture. In addition, thi tudy howed how long variou room in New Zealand houe are really ued and who ue thee. A part of thi tudy and the reult are preented elewhere (Khajehzadeh and Vale, 2015b). The fourth and final tudy wa deigned to invetigate the ize of room in New Zealand houe. Houe were elected of different ize and from a variety of period. Houe were taken from old NZ journal and catalogue of new houe contructed in different part of New Zealand. To tandardize the data floor plan of 189 New Zealand houe were drawn uing Auto Cad 2015 and the floor area of each room wa meaured. For each room, the area occupied by internal wall wa hared proportionally between appropriate room. A pread heet wa created howing the floor area of each room type for all houe. It hould be noted that a thi part of the reearch i till under way, the reult here are baed on analyi of 189 houe (an average 11 houe of each ize). Thi paper ue thee reult to how how a change in the average floor area of NZ houe can influence the accuracy of uing room/bedroom tandard. 5. Reult: The floor plan tudy of 189 NZ houe howed that room in larger houe are bigger than room with the ame function in mall houe. For intance, the average floor area of the mater bedroom in a 9 9+ room houe i 77% bigger than the mater bedroom of a 4 room houe. The ame pattern can be een in all room type. Table 3 compare the average floor area of elected room categorie, the total floor area of the houe (garage excluded) and the floor area per room for different ized NZ houe. According to Table 3, the average floor area per room in 9 9+ room NZ houe i 48% more than that of 4 room houe. Mater bedroom Other bedroom Kitchen Living room Dining room Combined L/D/K Bathroom /Toilet Total floor area Floor area per room 4 room houe NA NA room houe room houe room houe room houe room 24.1 houe Table 3 Average floor area of elected room, total floor area (garage excluded) and floor area per room for different ized houe baed on the floor plan tudy of 189 New Zealand houe The floor plan tudy alo indicate a big difference between the minimum and maximum floor area of houe with the ame number of bedroom (ee Table 4). Uually older NZ houe have a maller total floor area compared to a new NZ houe with the ame number of room. So date of contruction can be important when it come to etimation of NZ houe ize baed on number of room. 6 P age

7 Average floor area (m 2 ) Minimum floor area (m 2 ) Maximum floor area (m 2 ) 2 bedroom houe bedroom houe bedroom houe bedroom houe Table 4 Average, minimum and maximum floor area of different ized New Zealand houe Houe ize alo affect the number of room of each type. Figure 3 preent the average number of bedroom, bathroom, living room, dining room, kitchen and pecialized room in different ized houe. Although the number of kitchen tay contant in all houe ize the number of bathroom, living room, dining room and pecialized room increae a houe become larger. The number of living room i imilar in mall houe (4 6 room houe) but increae in houe with 7 and more room. According to Figure 3, the average number of pecialized room and the average number of bathroom in 9 9+ room houe i 1400% and 82% more repectively than in 6 room houe (the tandard 3 bedroom houe). Thi could be important becaue pecialized room, extra bathroom and extra living room which are mainly een in larger houe are not counted in CNOS and BBS Number of bedroom Number of bathroom Number of living room Number of dining room Number of Kitchen Number of Specialized room 4 room houe 5 room houe 6 room houe 7 room houe 8 room houe 9+ room houe Figure 3 Average number of bedroom, bathroom, living room, dining room, kitchen and pecialized room in different ized New Zealand houe 6. Dicuion: The reult of thi tudy how that a in other developed countrie, New Zealand houe have increaed in ize over the lat few year. In addition, the occupancy rate ha decreaed in mot of thee countrie including New Zealand. Thi how fewer people are living in larger houe. Having more bedroom with no uual occupant, multiple living room, double/triple garaging, multiple bathroom (including en uite) and pecialized room (i.e. tudy/office/library, game 7 P age

8 room/gym/rumpu room, play room, media room and tudio/workhop) are feature of large houing in New Zealand. Crowding indice are highly dependent on houe ize and either ue number of room or number of bedroom a indicator of thi. Room and bedroom tandard are widely ued by tatitic for counting the number of room and bedroom for cenu reaon. While ome feature of large houe like extra bedroom are reflected in all crowding indice other uch a extra living room and pecialized room (like a tudy or play room) are never reflected in CNOS and BBS and can only be een in ACI. For intance, aume a couple with two children (both boy with age 6 and 19 year old) live in a houe with 1 combined living room/dining room/kitchen, 2 bedroom and 1 tudy. Their crowding condition a meaured by different crowding indice i preented in Table 5. Thi how the ame houe for the ame houehold i crowded in CNOS but not crowded in ACI or BBS. On the other hand, imilar houe with different furnihing plan might be categorized differently in CNOS and BBS. Other feature uch a double/triple garaging and extra bathroom will not be reflected in any of the crowding indice. Thi could be important a the time ue part of thi tudy how that many people ue their garage for thing other than parking car (uch a a game room or workhop). ACI BBS CNOS Number of room 6 NA NA Number of bedroom NA 2 2 Number of occupant Peron per room 4 6 = 0.67 NA NA Number of needed bedroom NA 2 (1 for couple + 1 for both boy) 3 (1 for couple + 1 for each boy) Crowding condition Not crowded Not crowded equal to tandard Crowded 1 extra bedroom needed (0.67 < 1 PPR) (2 = 2) (2<3) Table 5 The crowding condition of a couple with two children (2 boy age 6 and 19) living in a houe with 1 combined living room/dining room/kitchen, 2 bedroom and 1 tudy in variou crowding indice Service pace like bathroom, en uite and laundrie are not counted a room in the room tandard or a a bedroom in the bedroom tandard. Although the floor plan tudy of NZ houe indicate that ome New Zealand houe have bathroom, en uite and laundrie a big a a bedroom and even bigger than a tandard double bedroom in UK houe (Vale and Vale, 2009). Thee pace are not counted in any crowding index. Thi tudy alo how that imilar type of room have very different floor area in large and mall houe. Thi mean that when a 6 room houe i compared with a 4 room houe, the difference i greater than jut the 2 additional room. The problem become more ignificant when comparing houe with imilar number of room in variou countrie. For intance the floor area of a 5 room houe in the UK i much maller than a 5 room New Zealand houe although both are treated the ame in mot crowding indice. How big room are i, a yet, not een a being important. 7. Concluion: Recent change in the ize and layout of New Zealand houe (and thoe of other developed countrie) ha quetioned the validity of room and bedroom tandard to the point that thee perhap need reviion. Crowding indice are precie in term of meauring overcrowded houe but le o when it come to meauring the level of underutilization or number of pare bedroom. Crowding indice with a room bai (ACI) are perhap of more ue than thoe that are bedroom 8 P age

9 baed (BBS and CNOS) becaue regardle of room name and furniture all habitable room are captured. A combination of ACI with BBS and CNOS could be more ueful for the new houing tock. For intance, the benefit of CNOS and BBS uch a age/gender limit for haring bedroom can be combined with the total number of room in ACI. 8. Reference: Freyberg, B. C. (2013). Houing improvement regulation 1947 (SR 1947/200) Reprint of 1 July Wellington: New Zealand Government. Friedman, D. (2010). Social impact of poor houing. London: ECOTEC. Fuller, R. and R. Crawford (2011). "Impact of pat and future reidential houing development pattern on energy demand and related emiion." Journal of houing and the built environment 26(2): Goodyear, R. K., A. Fabian and J. Hay (2011). Finding the crowding index that work bet for New Zealand applying different crowding indexe to cenu of population and dwelling data for Wellington, Statitic New Zealand. Harker, L. (2006). Chance of a lifetime: the impact of bad houing on children' live. London: Shelter. Houe plan. (2016). Zen Lifetyle5, 5 Bedroom. Retrieved from plan/ Khajehzadeh, I. and B. Vale (2015a). How do people ue large houe? Living and Learning: Reearch for a Better Built Environment: Proceeding of the 49th International Conference of the Architectural Science Aociation R. H. Crawford and A. Stephan. Melbourne, Architectural Science Aociation & The Univerity of Melbourne: Khajehzadeh, I. and B. Vale (2015b). Life cycle energy and large and mall houing in New Zealand. Living and Learning: Reearch for a Better Built Environment: Proceeding of the 49th International Conference of the Architectural Science Aociation R. H. Crawford and A. Stephan. Melbourne, Architectural Science Aociation & The Univerity of Melbourne: Murray, R. (1974). The influence of crowding on children behaviour. In D. V. Canter & T. Lee (Ed.), Pychology and the built environment. New York: Wiley. Navigation home. (2015). Navigation home book of idea: Villa erie: Plan V4. Porirua: Navigation home. New Zealand Home and Building. (1979). Pearon houe. New Zealand Home and Building, 3, Page, I. C. (2007). Changing houing need. Porirua, BRANZ. Reynold, L., & Robinon, N. (2005). Full houe? How overcrowded houing affect familie. London: Shelter. Reynold, L., Robinon, N., & Diaz, R. (2004). Crowded houe: Cramped living in England houing. London: Shelter. Robert Hughe, R., Fox, W., & Scott Marhall, A. (2011). The cae for pace: The ize of England' new home. London: RIBA. Statitic New Zealand. (2002) Cenu: Houing All table, Table 18. Wellington, Statitic New Zealand. Statitic New Zealand. (2008). Hot off the pre, National family and houehold projection: 2006(bae) Wellington: Statitic New Zealand. Statitic New Zealand. (2011) Cenu: Quick tat about houing revied 31 Mar 2011, Table 30. Wellington, Statitic New Zealand. Statitic New Zealand. (2014a). Statitical tandard for number of room/bedroom. Retrieved from Statitic New Zealand. (2014b). Building conent (Annual Dec). Retrieved from 9 P age

10 Statitic New Zealand. (2014c) Cenu: Quick tat about houing, Table 19. Wellington, Statitic New Zealand. Statitic New Zealand. (2014d). Explanatory Note: Houehold crowding. Retrieved from area/urban ruralprofile/explanatory note.apx#houehold crowding. Statitic New Zealand. (2014e). Subnational crowding table: : Table 1a. Wellington, Statitic New Zealand. Statitic New Zealand. (2016). Introduction to houing quality and meauring it. Retrieved from houing quality/intro tohouing quality meauring.apx. TradeMe (2014). TradeMe webite. Retrieved 26 May 2014, from trade me/our tory. Vale, R. and B. Vale (2009). Time to eat the dog: the real guide to utainable living. London, Thame & Hudon. 10 P age