Iwi, institute put homes in reach for wha¯nau
Home ownership may be at its lowest for nearly 70 years, but the dream is set to become a reality for wha¯nau in the Nelson region.
Two houses are due to be built, and sold for a ‘‘significantly reduced rate’’ next year, to wha¯nau registered to Nga¯ti Koata, as part of a project between the iwi and Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT).
Nga¯ti Koata Trust’s general manager Justin Carter said the trust had identified there was a need for affordable homes with an ‘‘increasingly a larger group of people’’ unable to buy their first home.
‘‘For us there is an opportunity to make a house available to wha¯nau who otherwise wouldn’t be able to get on the property ladder.’’
NMIT students were due to start building the houses at the NMIT carpentry department’s new base in Richmond, from April, Carter said.
He hoped three houses would be built, but that would depend on student numbers which would be confirmed in the new year.
So far, NMIT’s L3 pre-trade carpentry programme had seen a 100 per cent increase in enrolments for 2021, compared to the year before, he said.
The L4 apprenticeship programme had record enrolments, and the Trades Academy carpentry programme was full, Carter said.
There had been ‘‘a lot of interest’’ in the initiative, which stemmed from the strengthening relationship between local iwi and the institute.
While prices for the houses hadn’t been decided, the properties would be affordable because the house-build wasn’t a commercial project, he said.
‘‘It’s a learning project. So the benefit of a learning project like that is that there’s no labour overhead.’’
Eligibility criteria was being decided, and once complete, the trust would seek registrations of interest from registered Ngati Koata wha¯nau.
‘‘Certainly first-home buyers are in the group that we’re wanting to focus on,’’ Carter said.
The successful applicants would be able to have some say in the configuration of the houses, which once built (anticipated to be around November) would be moved to the buyers’ sections.
Suppliers who were part of NMIT’s existing industry relationships had shown ‘‘good will’’ towards the project.
‘‘This is not a big scaleable thing, it’s just something where we’ve connected the dots,’’ Carter said. ‘‘It’s an opportunity to help some wha¯nau, but also it’s a project in which we can learn about different ways of going about supporting wha¯nau into home ownership.’’
Carter hoped the initiative would be ‘‘enduring’’ with Nga¯ti Koata and other iwi.