Selling a natural community: Exploring the role of representations in promoting a new urban development

Abstract

We explore the rhetoric and symbolism deployed in the course of selling residential properties at Hobsonville Point, a new development in Auckland. Specifically, we ask what understanding of community is promoted in this development, and how this understanding is represented in promotional material. Our study is informed by analysis of newspaper articles, promotional material and planning/legal documents as well as field observation (2011)(2012). We conclude that appealing to a contemporary yearning for nature and social cohesion at an urban coastal location has generated a situation in which community is being 'sold' at Hobsonville Point, yet paradoxically is yet to be found.

Property advertising and the representational production of suburbia: “Functional suburbs” and “lifestyle suburbs” in Auckland

“…Within new suburban developments—by which we mean green‐field and brown‐field developments—advertising is implicated in the initial production of the meaning of suburban spaces. Opit and Kearns () highlight this point in their analysis of advertising at Hobsonville Point, a suburban development under construction in North‐West Auckland, New Zealand (NZ). They argue that, through promotional material, Hobsonville Point is being sold as a community before a community exists (Opit & Kearns, , p. 101).…”

“…Through property advertising specifically, marketers play on dominant cultural values and narratives to stimulate demand for property and increase the desirability of specific spaces, as well as legitimating certain forms of development (Collins & Kearns, 2008, p. 2921. Property advertising and promotional material is, therefore, one significant means through which impressions and imaginations of suburban spaces are shaped, both for prospective purchasers of property and the public more broadly (Collins & Kearns, 2008;Gillon & Gibbs, 2017;Opit & Kearns, 2014;Perkins, Thorns, & Newton, 2008).…”

“…As a malleable signifier, community has been shown to be an important aspect of contemporary suburban property advertising (Chamberlain, ; Opit & Kearns, ). Discourses of community often invoke small‐scale and peaceful places such as rural villages, generally in opposition to urban environments (Eyles, ; Perkins, ; Wood, ), despite such discourses having long been stock features of urban planning and urban policy.…”

“…At Kensington Park “true community” is equated with a diversity of potential occupiers. As in the case of Opit and Kearns (), however, community is being sold here before it necessarily exists (see also Chamberlain, ). The community at Kensington Park is promoted through reference to different styles of housing that would appeal to various people, from family homes to small apartments.…”

The Role of the Urban Design Review Panel in a Master-Planned Community Development: A Case Study of Hobsonville Point, New Zealand

“…From 2000 to 2011, a great deal of effort was put into the initial planning process, including consolidating the land, requesting plan modifications, and creating a government subsidiary entity (Hobsonville Land Company (HLC)) with the authority to carry out Hobsonville Point development [37]. As this was the first effort to "coordinate" the growth of the future urban region, the government adopted an innovative approach to planning for development: a public-private partnership.…”