TopSpots: New Zealand's Best City Communities

All of our towns and cities have their own sense of community.  It's a collective sense of belonging, pride, culture and co-operation that stems from the people themselves. 

Some cities seem to have a friendly, trusting atmosphere about them that lifts their residents and makes them proud of where they live; others have a colder formality and distance that affect how locals mix and socialise together.

We wanted to investigate how our larger cities compared in terms of residents' own feelings of community.  These are not figures that can be found from Census data or standard demographics; this requires qualitative research and analysis.  Fortunately our 12 largest cities conduct an ongoing survey called the Quality of Life Report.  We have analysed key aspects of this report and allotted points according to the relative performance of the cities to shed light on where it might feel best to be a resident. 

The Quality of Life Report was commissioned by 12 participating city and district Councils from across the country and published in 2007.  Within the report are a number of community criteria that are relevant to our own analysis and we have referred to it, and quoted from it, extensively.

The Quality of Life Report does not cover every city in New Zealand.  The city councils involved and their resident populations are listed below.  They represent the country's primary population centres and constitute 56% of the total population.  In the Snapshots section of the report we list highest and lowest figures from the 12 cities.  Where possible we have also listed a New Zealand Overall figure to provide an additional perspective. 

The key qualitative criteria we looked at were residents' rating of:

• Sense of community in local neighbourhood
• Feeling of trust
• Availability of support
• Frequency of feeling lonely or isolated
• Contact with neighbours
• Culturally rich and diverse arts scene
• Sense of pride in the way their city looks and feels
• Rating of graffiti, vandalism and litter as a problem

So, how did the cities score and which place came out on top?

Of the 12 cities examined one was a clear winner; Dunedin.  The others are shown below in descending order.

New Zealand's Best City Communities

Dunedin City- How did it score?

Dunedin was in the top four ranks for seven of the eight community criteria measured.  Here are the individual scores: 

That meant that Dunedin achieved 650 out of a possible 800 community points.

Highlights from the others

Maybe it's because it's less urban, but second-placed Rodney District has the greatest sense of community spirit as 73%, compared to an average of just 56% for the cities overall.  It's also the most neighbourly by far.

Rodney came second best for loneliness, graffiti, vandalism and litter and third best for support.

What Rodney doesn't have, according to residents, is a culturally rich and diverse arts scene, again probably belying its suburban status, only Tauranga scores lower on this measure.

Wellingtonians have the greatest sense of pride in their city, the richest arts scene and are more trusting than any of the other cities' residents.

Near neighbours Hutt and Porirua Cities also scored well.  Hutt has the least problem with graffiti, vandalism and litter, while Porirua has the third worst.  On the other hand Porirua is second best for positive interaction with the neighbours, while Hutt has the lowest score. 

Community seems to evaporate as you head further north, with Hamilton and the Greater Auckland cities of North Shore, Manukau, Auckland and Waitakere scoring lowest of all of those measured.  In fact Waitakere City's best score against any of the criteria was eighth for loneliness and graffiti, vandalism and litter.

Snapshots:

All About Dunedin City:

Dunedin is a university city with some fine architecture and a strong Scottish heritage.  It is the main urban, administrative and cultural hub of Otago, a region recongnised for its beautiful, natural environment.

Dunedin is the eighth largest city in New Zealand with a population of almost 119,000, which makes it 10,000 smaller than Hamilton and 13,000 larger than Tauranga.  The city is situated on the south east coast of the South Island and covers an area 3,314 square km.

The city's weather is generally temperate as a result of the hills that surround the inner city and protect it from some of the harsher weather conditions prevailing in Otago winters.  Typical summertime temperatures range from 10 to 19 degrees centigrade.  Winter days range from a brisk 3 to 11 degrees.

Dunedin has less rainfall than most other New Zealand cities, but despite that fact, it is often considered a damp place to live.  This is because the rainfall tends to fall as drizzle over more days, than in say, Auckland which has larger downfalls over fewer days.

The average house costs $277,790 which is almost 30% less than the average for New Zealand of $391,487.  Values have declined by almost 8% during the last year, but have increased by 101% over the last five years, which, along with Christchurch, is the highest growth recorded by the 12 cities examined in this report and compares with an appreciation rate of 80.5% nationwide.

Local industries include tourism, agriculture, health and engineering; however the biggest industry by far is education, employing more than 5,000 people, mainly thanks to New Zealand's oldest university.  The University of Otago contributes over $300 million to the local economy.  Its 20,000+ students come from all over the country, and the world, to study in its hallowed halls and make lifelong friends in the flats of Castle Street.

Dunedin house prices might not be steep, but its streets are; Baldwin Street in the suburb of North East Valley is reputed to be the steepest street in the world.  At its maximum the slope is 1:2.86; that means every 2.86 metres the elevation rises by one metre!

 Dunedin City - People, Families and Housing

Housing	Dunedin	New Zealand
Median home cost	$277,790	$391,487
Home appreciation
(1 year)	-7.8%	-4.5%
(5 years)	101.3%	80.5%
Homes owned	65.0%	62.7%
Homes rented	29.8%	31.1%

All about Dunedin City:  Useful Links:

Dunedin on Wikipedia

Homes for Sale in Dunedin 

Dunedin City Council

University of Otago

Otago Daily Times

Dunedin Fringe Festival

Sources:

• Quality of Life Report '07
• Quality of Life Survey 2006
• Statistics New Zealand
  - Census data 2001and 2006
  - Estimated Subnational Population by Age 2007 
• QV data August 2008

Our thanks to the various parties who helped and contributed to the data within the report, especially:
Kath Jamieson, Principal Research Adviser, Christchurch City Council and Project Manager of the Quality of Life Project and Vivian Ip, Senior Strategic Analyst, Auckland City Council.

Stephen Hart is the author of the best-selling homebuyer's books, 'Where to live in Auckland' and the 'The Streetwise Homebuyer' and co-presenter of TV2's 'House Call' programme.  He also writes a regular homebuyers' column for 'Herald Homes'. 

For more about TopSpot reports, click here

Click here, to read the September 2008 ASB Regional Economic Scoreboard which takes the latest quarterly regional statistics and ranks the economic performance of New Zealand's 16 Regional Council areas.  Ratings are based on specific measures such as employment, construction, retail trade and house prices.

All rights reserved.

The content is considered accurate at the time of the publication, however Barbican Publishing nor ASB cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions. 

Copyright: Barbican Publishing Ltd 2008

Categories: Choosing a Location , News , Top 5 Articles