New Auckland suburb to take shape
Over 3000 apartments to create Maungārongo, starting in July.
Without Kiwibank, says Ockham co-founder Mark Todd, the Kiwi residential apartment developer would not exist. Ockham started in 2009 when Todd, a builder developer, and Benjamin Preston, who was exiting a high flying merchant banking career, approached Kiwibank for additional finance. As the world came out of the GFC, no one else was lending to such companies, Todd says. Using that first Kiwibank investment and teaming up with architect Tania Wong 13 years ago, Ockham has grown to the point it has now finished more than 14 apartment developments, large and small. Over the past two years, Ockham has returned to its roots by involving Kiwibank again in three of their projects. “Without Kiwibank being in the market back then, we literally could not have started off on residential,” says Todd. Ockham’s latest project will see it working with Hauraki iwi collective Marutūāhu to start building the first of 40 planned apartment buildings on nearly 11 hectares beside Unitec in Auckland’s Point Chevalier. Todd says the land, returned to Marutūāhu under the Treaty of Waitangi, will become host to more than 3,000 apartments in the next two decades in a planned, green suburb with its own name - Maungārongo. The suburb will stand out because it will have limited access and parking for cars, while being close to public transport hubs, Todd says. “It’s modelled off quality, compact European city centres. The roading network is very limited but the walking and cycling network through those apartments is second to none. Kiwibank Head of Sustainable Finance Tom Williams says Ockham’s values align strongly with those of the bank. “With Ockham we have really good purpose alignment.”
“Our purpose is Kiwi making Kiwi better off. When you look at how Ockham is building housing for the future and its focus on sustainability, being really livable, its high focus on mobility so its residents are able to get around really easily - that aligns exactly with what we’re trying to do through sustainable finance. We’re focusing on longer term thinking in our lending decisions.”
Work will begin next July on Toi, the first building block in the huge project. It’s a green, brick-clad, seven-storey building housing 65 units with up to three bedrooms, underpinned by commercial spaces on the ground floor. Prices run from $530,000 to $875,000. “The cool things that matter for us is longevity and having ongoing maintenance costs as close to zero as we can,” says Todd. “We have aspirational values as a company. We want to build better communities. We want to build sustainable buildings, and to prove that you can do great buildings and still make the profits that you have to make in order to attract the finance and equity that you need.”
Working with Ockham also supports Kiwibank’s goal to deliver $2b in sustainable finance by 2030, to support Kiwi businesses to be more sustainable, according to Kiwibank’s Tom Williams. “How we price our lending is always bespoke to our customers, and it varies between developer and project. With housing we don’t want to take a short-term lens as an enabler of development we want to see that they have thought about what the home of the future actually needs to be and that comes through in the lending decisions we make, Ockham’s pricing reflects their focus on sustainability.” Watch the second episode in Kiwbank’s series, Business for Better, and learn more about how Ochkam are leading the way in how they do business for the better: www.kiwibank.co.nz/businessforbetter