New rentals for Ngati Whakaue

Ngati Whakaue is in the process of moving more homes on land the iwi owns in suburban Rotorua.

Pukeroa Oruawhata general manager Peter Faulkner said the iwi owned about 80 per cent of the land in and around Sala and Froude sts and had been progressively adding homes to those blocks.

"We are looking at residential housing to provide some short term value and utilise the land.

"We have 14 homes there at the moment and are putting three more on now and another two by the end of the year," Mr Faulkner said.

"So we are looking at five this year and three more sections are available to develop in later years.

"The land is traditional land and the houses are being rented.

"We do have a waiting list for tenants, quite a long waiting list, and are not having a lot of tenant churn down there, so we must be doing something right."

He said the iwi had been relocating properties it owned to the sections and hoped to have between 25 and 28 rentals available over the next few years.

"There is strong demand for residential housing, but the cost of building new is also going up, so the ability to get a decent market return is getting harder and harder.

"Generally our preference is for iwi and Ngati Whakaue tenants and we are investigating options for kaumatua housing as well.

"It's a significant investment for us and is part of our programme to make sure the underlying assets are being utilised to their optimum."