Our Movers and Shakers series is spotlighting Aotearoa's leading sustainability professionals transforming the way we design, build and operate our buildings and homes. These are the people leading the charge for a more sustainable built environment throughout Aotearoa.
Matt Heal
Matthew Heal is a Property Director at New Ground Capital - an innovative investment manager with a clear purpose to make a difference. His career has spanned the UK and Aotearoa, with a focus on sustainability within the construction industry.
What were your early career intentions and what led you to the construction industry?
I studied urban geography and have always been attracted by how people and places interact. I didn’t really know what studying geography would lead to, so I added a very practical land planning and development degree onto my BA and that led me much more directly towards the design, planning and delivery of projects.
I really got into construction when I went on my OE to the UK. I was fortunate enough to work on some very big and interesting buildings first as intern at CABE (the Commission for Architecture and Built Environment), right at its zenith, and then on the London 2012 Olympic Games and Legacy programmes for eight years. By then, I was well and truly hooked!
What piqued your interest in sustainable housing?
During my time on the London Olympics, I got to work with some very forward-thinking people. I could see how there is a multitude of ways to conceive and complete the same project – a spectrum based on how you choose to think about it – and that you could choose to do it really well. In London, we purposefully set out to deliver in the right way – to be efficient, to enhance the biodiversity, community, economy, to minimise our impact, and to create a genuine sustainable legacy.
By definition, housing should be sustainable. We all need a house, and it should help to sustain us. Houses make up so much of our built environment that housing becomes a core part of a sustainable society. In my mind, sustainability is not an optional ‘bolt on’ to housing and I believe that if more of us are making early and purposeful decisions we can create a lot more sustainable housing in New Zealand.
What global trends and drivers are you seeing in the build-to-rent space?
Build-to-rent (BTR) is a really interesting segment of the housing continuum. Globally more people are renting and the same is true in New Zealand.
BTR is a completely different way of delivering, owning and managing rental housing to the traditional approach. It requires enormous amounts of patient capital prepared to develop, hold and operate purpose-built housing with a service overlay. Long term asset owners are extremely interested in the performance over long periods of time. They houses must endure, remain relevant, attractive, compliant – so be sustainable. We can make whole of life decisions that other developers simply don’t. Our interaction with large (and typically international) investors is that they are extremely interested in sustainability, ESG, liveability, community and efficiency.
How has working in England informed your work in Aotearoa? What do you think we could learn from the UK regarding sustainability?
First is the value of permanence. In the built environment our work should outlive us for generations and the decisions we make now should be informed by that philosophy. Start by considering a project’s impact on people and place over the long term. We get one shot at developing each site, so you have to think what does the site deserve for future generations? Do it once, do it well.
I think that the UK really values biodiversity in urban environments in a way that we don’t. Europe also does a lot of local activity as communities.
The greatest inspiration for me in New Zealand has come from learning about Te Ao Māori, which in my view brings a deeper respect to the place, history, people, environment, communal and intergenerational thinking to shape our current actions. This is a unique advantage that we have in New Zealand, and we should be leveraging this wisdom throughout our built environment.
What improvements do you hope to see in the purpose driven/positive impact investment space?
This is another area where there is a lot of potential. We certainly believe that more effort should be put into models that deliver affordable rental housing at scale. These are common around the world and typically involve someone making a contribution to generate the affordability.
The other area is key worker housing which is also common around the world, but we seem to struggle to get the public and private sector to collaborate sufficiently. Attracting and retaining staff for key roles is a real issue in New Zealand (whether teachers in central Auckland or fruit pickers in Central Otago) and the common link up and down the motu is the lack of affordable housing.
Finally, there is a real issue coming with our aging population that will require a rental housing solution. Again, this is an affordability issue that will need some dedicated attention before that becomes our next crisis.
How can we make our rental housing stock more climate resilient and embed practices to achieve this in our industry?
There are a lot of measures that would improve the climate resilience and general performance of New Zealand’s housing stock. We need to respond to current issues around overheating and ventilation as these will only get worse with climate change. I would advocate for change around electrification – both in terms of efficient use on the demand side, but also integrating rooftop solar and batteries throughout our housing stock and communities to create resilience, control and affordability of our energy future. We work hard to make our houses really cost effective to run which helps maintain resident comfort as well as reduce their cost of living.
My preference would be to set long-term regulatory frameworks for improvement, similar to the BFCC (Building for Climate Change) programme, that clearly sets out a path for improving the performance of our housing stock over time.
Finally, and you might expect me to say this, but I would actually like to see a much greater focus on the benefits of rental housing in a well-functioning society.
Do you have a favourite green building
I love old buildings. They have the permanence and endurance and have proven flexible enough to adapt and survive. They normally quite literally reflect the people and place that they stand. That is the best use of resource – local and permanent. They also have history, stories and character that is often lacking from modern buildings. So for me, it is the Pantheon.