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Auckland hapu Ngati Whatua o Orakei hopes to take advantage of changes to the Kainga Whenua scheme to get some of its people into houses.
The scheme, which was set up to allow low income first home buyers to get Kiwibank loans to build on multiply-owned land, has had almost minimal take-up.
It is now being opened up to hapu and whanau trusts, the income limits are being raised, and the first home restriction has been dropped, meaning it may be a way kaumatua can built retirement housing round their marae.
Ngati Whatua chair Grant Hawke says the hapu faced significant challenges when it used the older papakainga scheme model to build homes on its land around Takaparawha,
He says while Kainga Whenua is limited by its focus on low income families, it will allow the hapu to develop ways to cater for the diverse range of whanau who all seek a home on the ‘hill’, as Ngati Whatua calls its mana whenua block.
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