South Auckland in numbers
Mostly rented
Across Māngere-Ōtāhuhu, Ōtara-Papatoetoe, Manurewa and Papakura, 57.9% of homes were mainly rented in 2023. Auckland Council says more of those renters have a non-private landlord such as Kāinga Ora than anywhere else in the city.
Damp and mould
In 2023, 32.6% of Māngere-Ōtāhuhu homes and 30.1% in Ōtara-Papatoetoe were always or sometimes damp, and both boards topped Auckland for mould bigger than an A4 sheet.
Some homes never heated
Census 2023 found 9.4% of Māngere-Ōtāhuhu dwellings and 8.6% in Ōtara-Papatoetoe never used any heating, against 5.0% across Auckland.
Built as state housing
Over 40 per cent of Ōtara houses were state houses in the early 1970s, with more state housing at Māngere Bridge and Papatoetoe.
The 2021 tornado
A violent tornado hit Papatoetoe on 19 June 2021, killing one person and damaging around 246 houses.
What the healthy homes standards ask of the wiring
Tenancy Services says the main living room needs one or more fixed heaters that can heat it to 18°C, and each qualifying heater must be at least 1.5 kW. A heat pump or electric heater used for this needs a thermostat. Portable LPG bottle heaters don't count.
Kitchens need an extractor fan that vents outside. Fans fitted since 1 July 2019 must be at least 150 mm across, or extract at least 50 litres a second, and bathroom fans 120 mm or 25 litres a second. A fan that just recirculates air fails.
Those are jobs for a licensed electrician: a new circuit for a heat pump, a fan ducted to the outside, a board with room for both. See healthy homes electrical work.
What tenants and landlords can do, and what's licensed
You can
- Tenants: tell the landlord in writing about a dead fan, a broken heater or a beeping smoke alarm.
- Tenants: replace flat batteries in older smoke alarms that have replaceable batteries.
- Landlords: keep the fan and heater specs from the installer in writing for your compliance statement.
Leave to a licensed electrician
- Any wiring, fan, heater circuit or switchboard work in a rental, whoever owns it.
- Any fault that keeps tripping the RCD or a breaker.
What we'd do as a South Auckland landlord
We'd book one electrician to look at heating, both extractor fans and the switchboard in the same visit, and ask for the fan sizes and heater capacity on the invoice. Damp homes are hard on fittings, so ask what they'd use in a bathroom that never quite dries out.
Want a specialist to sort it?
Tell us the job and your postcode. We match the licence-checked local electrician who does this kind of work, and they call you. No ring-around, and your number goes to them alone.