Government funding paves the way for 3000 more homes for Rotorua

Government funding unlocks path for thousands of houses to be built in Rotorua. Photo / Andrew Warner

Rotorua will receive the biggest slice of a multi-million dollar infrastructure investment expected to whittle down the completion date for local housing plans from 30 years to seven.

A total of 3080 new homes are expected to be built as the Government promises $84.6m in funding. The money is expected to go towards stormwater solutions to help unlock areas in the city where the new homes can be built.

An additional $36 million required for the rest of the stormwater programme is to be funded by council and developers.

Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods made the announcement yesterday in Ōtaki, saying homes built will range from elderly housing, papakāinga, public, affordable and market housing.

"The only way we are going to solve the housing crisis is to build more houses," Woods said.

Rotorua was among several centres to receive funding. In the Western Bay of Plenty, $38.4m was promised to help enable housing at Ōmokoroa, meaning the wider Bay of Plenty region will receive $123m of the $179m promised nationally.

Woods said there had been enormous interest from regions wanting to build more housing, but who needed funding support for it to be viable.

"We know a massive piece of the missing puzzle in the housing crisis we inherited is infrastructure; there simply hasn't been enough investment in getting land build-ready."

Housing minister Megan Woods announced funding for infrastructure in the Bay of Plenty yesterday. Photo / NZME

The money was being made available through the Infrastructure Acceleration Fund, a component of the Government's $3.8 billion Housing Acceleration Fund announced in March 2021. It is a contestable fund of at least $1 billion and was launched on June 30, 2021.

Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick said the announcement was huge.

It was expected Rotorua would need an additional 6000 new homes in 10 years, with 4260 of these needed by 2026.

"This funding will enable us to accelerate this programme of work and reduce the timeframe for completion from 30 years to seven years."

Chadwick said the news was the culmination of work that began with the Government in 2020, when Woods began working with Rotorua on housing solutions and undertaking a place-based assessment of the city's housing challenges.

Rotorua Lakes Council originally submitted three applications for funding, totalling $113m.

Infrastructure_funding_OL

The application for funding for projects on the city's eastside was dropped after it received different Government funding. The remaining two projects were then merged for a total of $99.5m requested, with yesterday's announcement confirming $84.6m of that.

Council district development deputy chief executive Jean-Paul Gaston said significant Government investment in infrastructure across the city enabled the council to fast-track projects supporting housing and climate change resilience.

"This was critical to the upcoming intensification Plan Change."

Gaston said it paved the way for development that may otherwise have been delayed or potentially deemed unviable without the required infrastructure in place.

Asked how the funding impacted on the use of emergency housing in Rotorua, Gaston said the city needed housing of all types, including social housing.

"More social housing will reduce the need for people to be in motels," Gaston said.

The funding meant the council could progress with infrastructure plans which were essential before any new homes could be built.

Future projects aimed at addressing housing and community wellbeing were expected to be developed in partnership with Te Arawa and Government agencies and the community.

Rotorua First National Real Estate principal Ann Crossley said across the board, housing was short.

"We are desperately short of housing."

Crossley said it would be fantastic if the 3000 homes were able to be built. The situation was evident to her in the number of buyers outweighing the number of properties.

"We've got people living in motels so we are clearly short on houses."

Social support charity The Hub Trust Housing often worked with people trying to find accommodation.

A spokesperson said it was definitely a good thing for more housing in the city.

But they were interested to see what kind of housing went where and if there was social housing, how it was managed.

It was good to see the housing supply increasing but it needed to be balanced, the spokesperson said.

Te Arawa was contacted for comment.