Pāpāmoa mother prepares to move into first home as Manawa Community Housing Trust launches new home ownership programme

Pāpāmoa mother Ash McMahon used to draft bedroom designs on a piece of paper when she was a child.

Now the 34-year-old is looking forward to painting the interior walls of her first home after signing a leasehold agreement with the Manawa Community Housing Trust.

McMahon told the Bay of Plenty Times the programme was about giving whānau “that first step” towards home ownership and without it she would have been unable to get on the property ladder.

“The cost of living is super expensive. Trying to come up with a deposit to buy a house and land package is basically impossible, especially as a sole parent.

“It just opens you up to a whole new world ... You end up becoming your own landlord as well and I’ve never had that opportunity before.”

McMahon said she would be moving into her new home with her 9-year-old son and 17-year-old nephew.

“I’ll be setting my son up for his future as well.”

She hoped to eventually buy her own house and land package.

The Manawa Community Housing Trust - a community housing provider that delivers housing for its iwi Ngā Pōtiki - launched the long-term lease homeownership programme in Pāpāmoa on Monday.

McMahon was one of four whānau who signed documents to lease land from iwi to build their own homes, in what the trust’s chief executive described as a “momentous” day.

Pāpāmoa mother Ash McMahon has just signed a leasehold agreement with the Manawa Community Housing Trust to build her own home. Photo / Megan Wilson

Raewyn Taite, 53, would also be moving into her first home and said she was “really thankful” for the programme as she “wouldn’t have been able to do it” otherwise.

Taite said she would be living with her daughter, her daughter’s husband and their three children aged 6, 2 and 1.

“It means a lot because it’s a future for my grandchildren. That’s the main reason why I got it. And for my daughter.”

Manawa Community Housing Trust chief executive Victoria Carroll. Photo / Megan Wilson

Manawa Community Housing Trust chief executive Victoria Carroll said the goal of the programme was to provide affordable, long-term secure housing to families.

The homes would be built by April.

Carroll said it was a “momentous” day and acknowledged GJ Gardner for “going the extra mile” for the whānau.

She also acknowledged Westpac because without them, “this wouldn’t be happening”.

Carroll explained the trust owned the land and set up a leasehold with Ngā Pōtiki families, supported by Westpac. Families paid “nominal” lease rent.

The trust also provided a $100,000 cash subsidy to families to go towards their deposit, which whānau repaid over 15 years, she said.

Carroll said leasehold houses cost between $400,000 to $500,000, so families were saving “a lot”.

She said the programme was part of Ngā Pōtiki’s long-term strategy for post-Treaty settlement.

“This subdivision is a direct response to the land alienation that we suffered post-Land Wars. And it is a strategy to repatriate people back here.”

Carroll said the trust also offered rentals for families on benefits and affordable rentals which were rented at 40 per cent less than market value.

The trust had also launched its papakainga programme which involved relocating housing onto Māori land.

Four whānau signed a leasehold agreement on Monday to build their own homes with the Manawa Community Housing Trust. Photo / Megan Wilson

Westpac Central North Island mobile mortgage area manager Shelley Keill said it was important for her to see New Zealanders get into their first homes.

“It’s life-transforming.”

She said Westpac was part of several schemes in New Zealand helping families into “obtainable” housing.

Franchisee for G.J. Gardner Homes Tauranga South Shane McConnell said he was “really excited” to be involved with the trust.

“It’s just great to have a housing model that’s achievable ... some of the more exciting builds we’ll do is to help people into homes that never thought they could be.”

Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.