Budget 2015: Waipareira Trust seeks Govt help in housing bid

Chief executive John Tamihere. Photo / Natalie Slade

West Auckland's Te Whanau O Waipareira Trust is bidding to enter the city's overheated housing market - and wants the Government to make land available, so it can build at affordable prices.

The trust is bidding for two large blocks of state land in Moire Rd in Massey, and is also negotiating a possible role in a commercial deal to build apartments on top of The Warehouse in Newmarket.

Chief executive John Tamihere said he hoped today's Budget would open up more state land for housing.

"I think in this Budget there will be grand opportunities for us to get about 150 houses up in Massey on state land in a good managed community, and that can be a proxy for a lot of other things we can do," he said.

"We would do the Newmarket deal solely to win a bigger balance sheet to proceed elsewhere. We would do Moire Rd because that's what we are obligated to do."

The trust does not have any housing at present but sees affordable housing as the missing link in its portfolio of services.

Last year it reported income of $16.2 million, mainly from Government contracts, and net assets of $26.9 million.

Mr Tamihere said the trust had applied for registration as a community housing provider and had already bid unsuccessfully on opportunities to redevelop Housing NZ land at Parnell, Grey Lynn and Takapuna. It missed out on another bid for the former Crown Lynn pottery site in New Lynn, which fetched $570/sq m.

"The only way to get your money back on that is building up four to eight levels, minimum," he said.

In Massey, the Government is considering the sale of 9.9ha at 81-89 Moire Rd, designated for a school but currently used as a horse paddock, and 2.5ha at 36-46 Moire Rd.

Land Information NZ group manager Crown property John Hook said the larger block was no longer needed for a school but was "being considered for another public work before an offer is made to iwi under the Nga Mana Whenua o Tamaki Makaurau Collective Redress Act 2014".

A Housing NZ spokesman said its site was "too large for us to consider just building social houses here [so] we are currently working through constraints and opportunities for how we could best develop the land. We have no current plans to sell."

In Newmarket, The Warehouse spokeswoman Julia Morton said the company had consent to build 18,000sq m for retailing, 12,000sq m for commercial use and 160 apartments on the site of its current store at 64-74 Broadway.

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