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Ngāti Koroki Kahukura will this weekend open a 10-home papakainga near Pohara Marae on the slopes of Maungatautari.
Spokesperson Linda Te Aho says the project is affordable for first home buyers using a combination of Kiwisaver deposits and Westpac loans, with the iwi contributing the land.
The houses come from one of the country’s largest housebuilders, and the master plan by Rau Hoskins of Design Tribe includes a shared laundry to cut down on the amount of wastewater generated by the settlement, shared gardens and open spaces and a no dig approach that retains the natural contours of the land.
She says the new owners have been holding hui and planting days.
"Part of the resource consent was we had to have shelters around the papakainga so they have been getting together and they are all connected by whakapapa to our iwi Ngāti Koroki Kahukura. They have been all living in the towns and cities but coming back to the marae for various hui so it is our whānau members who are moving back to their tūpuna whenua," she says.
Linda Te Aho says if whānau want to sell up the iwi has a right of first refusal on the houses, and any profits from the land sale goes back to the iwi for reinvestment.
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