Gemma Pearson and Atirau Ohia outside their new home with whānau and some neighbourhood children. Photo / Supplied
A Tauranga iwi's multimillion-dollar development at Pāpāmoa - which will feature a kaumātua village, retail centre, early childcare and community centre - is nearing completion.
And now the iwi has its sights set on another development.
Ngā Pōtiki kick-started the Manawa residential and commercial housing development in 2017. The hapū says it has more than 200 whānau on its waitlist for homes and rental accommodation.
The development has also helped working families struggling to get on the property ladder fulfil their dream of homeownership.
The project was 70 per cent complete and Ngā Pōtiki had plans for another subdivision, Te Ākau, off Simpson Rd, which would open up a further 100 housing sites.
About 30 per cent of the sites at Manawa had been set aside for Ngā Pōtiki housing, including a bespoke 20-home kaumātua village - and about 30 sites for affordable rentals that would be owned and managed by Ngā Pōtiki as a registered Community Housing Provider.
There were also 40 homes which would enable Ngā Pōtiki whānau to buy their own house and land packages in a shared equity scheme - and 10 of those had been purchased by whānau.
Meanwhile, a commercial retail centre, early childcare centre, community centre and 300sq m of green space were still to be completed.
Atirau Ohia and Gemma Pearson said moving into their modern, architecturally designed, three-bedroom home, one year ago, was "life-changing".
Pearson said although they both worked fulltime in the health and education sector, the idea of being in debt for the rest of their lives was "daunting".
The couple also contemplated moving out of Tauranga to Masterton, where houses were cheaper, but they did not want to leave the city.
They felt for those still struggling to pay high rents, which was tough, Ohia said.
"People need to be in dry homes and some of the situations we see in our work can be distressing."
Now the pair hoped the Government would acknowledge the Ngā Pōtiki initiative and look at funding.
"This is an awesome initiative. We have felt a little bit like guinea pigs, but now it has been established can they support iwi to do this in other areas?"
Silence Quinn, 26, and her partner Corey Wheeler, 28, moved into their brand new three-bedroom house at Manawa in November.
"So probably after a couple of months, it actually kicked in – like, 'Oh my God, I'm in my own home, I don't have to pay somebody else's mortgage'," Quinn, who works as a projects manager in Mount Maunganui, said.
"We're real lucky that Ngā Pōtiki has gone out of their way to sort it out for us. You know, they made it easier," Quinn said.
"It was time-consuming, obviously, because we were the first ones to try this scheme ... but Ngā Pōtiki helped us along the way, every step."
Victoria Carroll, deputy chair of Ngā Pōtiki ā Tamapahore Trust said it received a very small Treaty settlement, so the development of Manawa was critical in growing the tribal economic base, she said.
"Ngā Pōtiki must protect and grow the Treaty settlement on behalf of all Ngā Pōtiki people, balancing that with providing benefits directly to Ngā Pōtiki whānau. Providing quality affordable housing and rentals is one way we are doing that."
"Employment training and improving education outcomes, including building education infrastructure (like our early childhood centre), are two other pathways we are focusing on."
The "homeownership subsidy" is a shared-equity scheme, available specifically to Ngā Pōtiki tribal members.
For each house and land package, Ngā Pōtiki puts in an equity share and the whānau puts in an equity share, using bank borrowing (mortgages), she said.
"The property is then jointly owned as per equity percentages. The whānau can and are encouraged to then buy out Ngā Pōtiki's share over time, so they own the house and land outright. Should the whānau ever sell the home, they must first offer to sell it back to Ngā Pōtiki under a right of first refusal.
"If it's appropriate, Ngā Pōtiki might purchase the home to on-sell to another whānau through the shared-equity scheme."
The house and land packages sold to Ngā Pōtiki whānau through the shared-equity scheme cost a maximum of $550,000.
Ngā Pōtiki had a lot of positive feedback and interest, both from our whānau, those in the industry and government agencies, Carroll said.
It was now working on applying those housing strategies to a future subdivision of 100 sites near Simpson Rd.
Affordable housing was an issue for all New Zealanders but it was compounded for Māori because household incomes are often less than the average household income, she said.
"Often whānau are living in overcrowded or very old, substandard housing. The shared-equity scheme is aimed at working families who without support couldn't afford their own home.
"Over the past few years, according to an annual international report on housing affordability, Tauranga has consistently been ranked the least affordable city in New Zealand, and one of the most unaffordable cities in the world."
A Tauranga City Council spokeswoman said it supports initiatives like Ngā Pōtiki's.
The council progressed the original planning proposal through the creation of a special housing area and then subsequently a plan change to support the implementation of the special housing area.
"The Manawa development as a whole provides for a significant range of housing types to meet community needs and therefore supports and contributes to Tauranga's existing housing stock."
A Westpac spokesman said its partnership with Ngā Pōtiki was its first shared homeownership programme that was designed by iwi and led by iwi.
"It has been very successful. We have gone on to develop shared equity schemes with other iwi. We see shared equity as a great way of getting people into homes affordably.
"It overcomes the barrier of needing a large deposit and lowers the cost of servicing a home loan."