Types of unoccupied dwellings – empty, residents away

The unoccupied dwelling count is a good indication of the number of holiday homes, especially in towns like Taupo and Whangamata where the local populations increase by large amounts over the summer and holiday periods. This is an important consideration where trying to understand the size of local markets (and infrastructure needs)

Thanks @rodmchugh, and do you use the information regarding unoccupied dwellings that are empty vs residents away? Or assessed it in the past and found it didn't meet your needs?

Would be great to get your thoughts on whether this is important to continue trying to collect, given difficulties in the past, combined with the new mail-based methods with fewer door-step collectors.

Thanks Tina, yes I use unoccupied dwelling counts as an indication of the number of holiday homes, especially in places like Taupo and Whangamata where they become a significant part of the local market and impact on total 'Home Improvement' spend. I think this measure still has value.

Information that distinguished whether a dwelling was empty or residents away was very useful when attempting to evaluate the effect of the Canterbury earthquakes on housing in greater Christchurch. See report here: http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/people_and_communities/housing/housing-christchurch-after-earthquakes.aspx. It also gives information about spare dwelling capacity – ie. The dwellings are not in use rather than just being temporarily unoccupied.

So to summarise what we've discovered so far about collecting not just counts of unoccupied dwellings, but also whether they are empty or the enumerator assessed that the residents were away:
@aaronnorgrove thinks this is "essential" to better understand demand on services etc;
@nickbrunsdon and @rosemarygoodyear both used this for post-Canterbury quake purposes and may/may not use again;
@rodmchugh you might also make use of empty vs. away?
@kimollivier you are interested in unoccupied dwelling counts at meshblock level, but Im not sure if you use the empty vs residents away?

Any comments or questions regarding the proposed strategies for collecting this information in the future? (see my second to last post).

Hi, I would say it is essential if there is no question asked regarding second residence. I am not sure that the new collection methodology would do anything to improve the current inaccuracies around counts and type of unoccupied dwelling, so replacing it with a question on second residence would be OK from my perspective (and I am not speaking on other uses here) because the work I am involved in is regularly dependent on knowing about the numbers of 'holiday' homes in particular areas. At the moment, council rates address data provides some idea but unoccupied dwelling data from census provides a good proxy. I am not sure that mailout is going to improve the current inaccuracy however. In places like Raglan, Waiheke, Omaha etc. there is going to be a lot of access codes sitting in letterboxes! Is there a plan to enumerate using the old methodology in the event there is known non-response from a particular dwelling?

For unoccupied dwelling a distinction between 'Away' and 'Empty' could be useful. Where Away is a dwelling that people do live in some of the time and 'Empty' is an empty dwelling where no one currently lives.

HI @aaronnorgrove sorry for the delay in replying. Yes, the non-response methodology does include enumeration using doorstep collectors (possibly preceded by follow-up using a different mode where possible), but this door-knocking will be more targeted than the previous blanket approach.

So everyone, back to second address/residence then -- what do we want to know about? Does anyone compare data internationally and therefore want the same concept as the Office of National Statistics (England and Wales)? Their 2011 Census defined second residence as a stay of 30 days or more a year.

Would you kindly follow this link if you want to respond:
second residence

Hi Tina,

Not sure if this is the applicable variable but knowing the proportion of unoccupied dwellings that are a holiday home/bach would be very useful for Civil Defence and Emergency Management (CDEM). When evacuations are required knowing how many people require evacuation in a particular area is critical. During the holiday off-season usually resident data is sufficient to plan an evacuation. However, during public holidays and the summer holiday season it is impossible to know how many people may require evacuation from holiday hot-spots such as Coromandel and Taupo. A lot of New Zealander's stay in their or their friend's/familie's holiday homes at these times. Knowing how many dwellings are holiday homes/baches in a location would certainly help planning for holiday evacuations.

Thanks
Derek

Hi @derekphyn thanks for joining the Housing discussions! There are two things we'd like to know, pretty please ...

Based on what you've mentioned, can you clarify whether you use information gathered by census collectors who have attempted to determine whether a dwelling was empty or residents were away. Note that this level of detail is likely to be more difficult to determine in the 2018 Census, where there will be fewer census collectors and more mail and electronic methods used to collect census information. We need to understand whether this is still useful or second address information would suit (possibly better).

Then, would you kindly follow my link above to the second address/residence discussion where we are trying to understand:
* what is the most useful determination of a second address eg 30+ nights per year
* what information people would most like to know about the characteristics and/or use of these dwellings.

It sounds as though you do want information about the use that is made of a second address and the number of rooms or bedrooms to understand the capacity of a dwelling to house holiday-makers, as this would give a better indication of numbers of people who may be there.

Would love to see your thoughts here (please follow the link above and respond there if your thoughts relate most to second address).

Hi Tina,

No we do not use information about whether a dwelling is empty or the resident is away as there is no information as to what reason the resident may be away. It is too great an assumption to make that all dwellings that looked lived in but no-one is at home must therefore be a holiday home.

I am afraid I do not follow the logic of the CDEM. What good is the information of whether a particular person owns a second residence for a specific emergency? At the time of any emergency either of two residences could be empty, partly filled with any number of family members, fully occupied or even occupied by the entire family plus friends and neighbours. Each individual second residence in a particular location could have any number of people in it that may need evacuating during an emergency. I fail to comprehend how connecting two addresses via the census would contribute to planning there. Personally - and not speaking for any organization that I work for - I would find this sort of information intrusive and would recommend against including second addresses, unless there is really a compelling argument for use of this data.

Please note any views expressed are personally my own and do not necessarily represent the views of the CDEM sector in general.

My thinking was that if CDEM knew what proportion of dwellings in a Meshblock or CAU are a holiday home then we could make better informed assumptions about
the possible evacuation requirements during holiday periods than we can now. Of course a second residence may not be necessarily be a holiday home, may not necessarily be occupied at a particular time, or could have any number of occupants at any time so it
is very hard to make detailed estimations, further subsequent questions about the second residence might be required. However, if we knew that, for example, 50 out of 100 dwellings in a meshblock in a popular holiday destination were a second residence then
if we had to plan an evacuation of that meshblock area during a holiday period then, I believe, it is fair to assume the population requiring evacuation could be roughly as much as twice as many as the usual resident population (maybe even more if we considered
daytime visitors, workers, and those staying in other accommodation). Knowing such information helps us in planning the evacuation and providing sufficient resources to enable the evacuation to be as efficient as possible.

Please note any views expressed are personally my own and do not necessarily represent the views of the CDEM sector in general.

My thinking was that if CDEM knew what proportion of dwellings in a Meshblock or CAU are a holiday home then we could make better informed assumptions about the possible evacuation requirements during holiday periods than we can now. Of course a second residence may not be necessarily be a holiday home, may not necessarily be occupied at a particular time, or could have any number of occupants at any time so it is very hard to make detailed estimations - further subsequent questions about the type of second residence might be required. However, if we knew that, for example, 50 out of 100 dwellings in a meshblock in a popular holiday destination were a second residence then if we had to plan an evacuation of that meshblock area during a holiday period then, I believe, it is fair to assume the population requiring evacuation could be roughly as much as twice as many as the usual resident population (maybe even more if we considered daytime visitors, workers, and those staying in other accommodation). Knowing such information helps us in planning the evacuation and providing sufficient resources to enable the evacuation to be as efficient as possible.

HI @suzannebecher thanks for your input to this discussion. Your point regarding the perception of it being intrusive for census to collect second address information is interesting. In the interests of a well-rounded discussion, please elaborate a little on what you see as the issues and what would be more acceptable? If your concerns are solely regarding second address, please respond from this link.
Thank you!

Just had an article published using census data on dwellings and jobs http://www.planning.org.nz/Category?Action=View&Category_id=699 (Living on the Edge). If second residence is asked at next census, will there still be some way of classifying unoccupied dwellings?

Hi @aaronnorgrove thanks for posting your article (I tried creating an account so I could read it, haven't managed yet). Please do submit your information needs regarding the count of dwellings which were unoccupied on census night.

Second residence and unoccupied dwellings are separate (although overlapping) topics/variables.

If second residence information is collected in the next census, this would not necessarily mean we would stop classifying unoccupied dwellings as empty or residents away. Dwellings can be unoccupied for various reasons other than being a second residence eg rental properties that currently have no tenants.

The key thing we need to establish in this discussion thread is how useful is it to distinguish between empty, unoccupied dwellings and dwellings that were unoccupied because the residents were away, and how this data is being used.

Hi all

Note that next Tues 30 June is when this Loomio consultation finishes and submissions are due.

Have a lovely weekend!
Tina