What the new homes at 37-39 Haumoana St will look like. Photo / Supplied
Eleven two-bedroom social housing homes are being built on a $1.4 million lakeview site in Rotorua’s Koutu suburb.
Work is already under way at the site, at 37 to 39 Haumoana St, and is scheduled to be finished by April next year.
The development is led by Grafraell, a family-owned business based in Hamilton.
Grafraell confirmed it planned to sell the development to a community housing provider.
The homes will then be available to people on the Housing Register, awaiting public housing spaces.
Grayson Bell from Grafraell said they bought the 1852sq m site for $1.4m from another development company that planned to partner with Kāinga Ora to build 11 three-bedroom, double-storey homes, each with two bathrooms.
He said Grafraell had reduced the plans to 11 two-bedroom, single-storey homes, each with one bathroom.
“We have reduced the footprint of the project so it’s smaller … We want to make sure the neighbours are happy with what we are doing.”
He said the new plans meant there would be fewer people and fewer cars in the area.
He said Grafraell had been in business for 30 years and dealt mainly in the investor market, but had done some recent projects for Kāinga Ora and community housing providers.
He said the company always tried to build high-quality homes that added value to the areas.
He said it was too soon to name the community organisation they were going into partnership with.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development confirmed to the Rotorua Daily Post it was in the early stages of considering a social housing opportunity on Haumoana St.
A spokesman said it was part of a new community-led approach for building social housing in Rotorua, with Rotorua Lakes Council and community housing providers.
“As discussions are still in the early stages, and there is no contract in place, further information cannot be shared at this time. ”
Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka announced in June Rotorua was to get greater access to modern affordable housing through the community-led partnerships.
He said at the time it would result in 189 affordable homes backed by the Government being built in Rotorua.
It came after Kāinga Ora canned hundreds of social housing building projects around the country following a review’s finding that its debt was ballooning.
Asked who would live in the Haumoana St homes, the ministry spokesman said, generally speaking, tenants in social housing were placed into homes from the Housing Register by the Ministry of Social Development.
A majority of social housing tenants pay an income-related rent determined by that ministry, which was usually about 25% of their net income.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development paid the income-related rent subsidy to the community housing provider to cover the balance between the tenant’s rental payment and the market rent for the property.
Haumoana St resident Steve Christie said he was disappointed to hear the homes would be for social housing.
He said it was a shame the property sold so quickly as a few homeowners in the street might have been interested in buying the land.
Social housing developments were all over Rotorua, he said, so it wasn’t a new issue for long-term residents to deal with.
His other concern was around traffic, given there were several other large housing developments under way in the Koutū area.
“I was only saying to the wife this morning that it’s hard enough now to get out of Bennetts Rd on to Lake Rd, let alone having all those houses and another 30 to 40 cars trying to get out.”
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.