What's around the Manukau centre
A centre built from scratch
Manukau City Council, formed in 1965, bought land in 1966 for a new town centre. The mall opened in October 1976 and the council building in 1977. Manukau Central is still mostly commercial, Puhinui East mostly houses, and Wiri to the west industrial.
Hill streets from 1979
Goodwood Heights, on the hills next to the centre, came out of the Manurewa East greenfields development the council began in 1975. Its first sections were advertised in April 1979, and a Housing New Zealand project had gone up by 1981. It had 1,191 dwellings in 2023.
Changing hands
Home ownership in Wiri rose from 22.5% in 2018 to 35.5% in 2023, one of the biggest rises in Auckland, while in Goodwood Heights it fell from 67.7% to 61.1%. New owners often inherit a roof with no history.
The 2021 tornado
The tornado of 19 June 2021 damaged roofs, trees and shipping containers and killed a worker at Wiri Station. About 1,200 homes were affected.
Why the build year matters on these roofs
Stone-chip metal tiles, often called decramastic, were popular in New Zealand in the 1960s and 1970s. Gerard says asbestos was used in tile coatings up until 1981, and some of those roofs were installed as late as 1982, so a roofer will want a test before removing them.
That puts many of the first houses around Manukau right on the line. If you're not sure what's on your roof, read is my roof asbestos? and don't water-blast it in the meantime.
If the tiles are sound, painting can carry them on. If they're rusting through, replacing decramastic with COLORSTEEL is the usual next step.
Our call on a Manukau-area roof
On a house from 1979 to the early 1980s with stone-chip tiles, we'd get a sample tested before anyone quotes a re-roof or a water-blast clean. If you bought recently, ask the roofer for a written condition report so you start with a record of what's there. We'll pass your job to one checked local roofer if we have one nearby, and say so straight away if we don't.
Want a roofer to take a look?
Tell us the job and your postcode. We match it with a Find My Roofer certified roofer who specialises in that kind of work, and they call you to quote. Your number goes to them alone.