More affordable homes for Old Papatoetoe

(New Zealand) Housing Foundation (HF) has just completed construction of 29 new homes on Cambridge Terrace in Old Papatoetoe – a site sold to the foundation by Eke Panuku in one of our priority locations. 
 
Old Papatoetoe is well located close to a train station and the motorway. 
 
It was the perfect place for the HF to build on their local portfolio of eight homes, which it built in Old Papatoetoe on a site it purchased from Eke Panuku forerunner, Auckland Council Properties Ltd in 2014, 
 
New Zealand Housing Foundation is a housing charity and registered community housing provider. It developed its unique shared ownership model, which is now widely used in the affordable housing sector. Shared ownership is successful and affordable as households buy what they can afford with a mortgage and a 5% deposit. The mortgage is affordable as the household mortgage repayments are no more than 30% of the households before tax income. Typically, this arrangement means a household owns about 60% of one of HF new homes. Housing Foundation owns the remaining 40% at no cost to the household. When the household can afford to, they are able to start buying the part of their home owned by HF. It can take households between 5 to 15 years to own their home. 

“HF and Eke Panuku have very aligned goals for our local communities. We want to see empowered, happy and healthy families being able to enjoy living in a community that is welcoming and provides the amenity they need,” said NZHF Chief Executive, Dominic Foote.
 
“We focus on building homes for people and giving families a pathway to home ownership in places where the land values are lower and where there tends to be a higher proportion of people renting. Old Papatoetoe has both these attributes.
 
Housing Foundation provides homes that are close to public transport and public amenity. They work with local community groups, businesses and schools to assess local demand for affordable housing. They aim to provide, healthy and sustainable housing that is easy to maintain. 
 
Dominic says HF tends to build mainly in brownfield locations, and they aim to build fast rather than land bank. The land on Cambridge Terrace was settled in 2022 and people have already moved into their new homes in mid-2024. 
 
“We work with families who may be renting locally but want to own a home and stay in their neighbourhood. This means they can live in their familiar community; the kids can stay in their local schools and so on.
 
“We have already built eight houses on an Eke Panuku site we purchased several years ago in Old Papatoetoe and we realised that demand in this neighbourhood is high. It was a no brainer to purchase this site from Eke Panuku and build a further 29 affordable homes”
 
Other areas HF has built affordable homes in are Mangere (50 homes underway with 29 completed), and 120 homes across Glen Innes and Panmure.
 
Dominic says he values the relationship with Eke Panuku because we’re able to have open conversations and get to the solution quickly. Sometimes, like in the case of Northcote, HF found the land prices too high to enable them to use their particular model to provide affordable housing. 
 
“We know that not every opportunity is one that will bear fruit,” he says, “But it’s great to have a partner like Eke Panuku that you can have honest conversations about what will work and what won’t,” he said.
 
Dominic says he appreciates the light monitoring touch from Eke Panuku.  “Once we have an aligned plan, Eke Panuku doesn’t tell us how to build, rather they monitor how we are progressing, we work together until the project is delivered.”
 
Dominic adds that HF is always on the look-out for locations where they can provide affordable housing for Aucklanders. “We have money and can develop land, he says, what we need more than anything is investors.”