Partnership
Every successful affordable housing case study to date has one thing in common – partnership
Partnership brings with it a range of expertise and specialised skills, which are key to the fast-track development of affordable housing in Auckland.
In SHA developments of 15 or more dwellings, developers/landowners can work with Community Housing providers in two ways:

Option 1 Relative Affordable |
Option 2 Retained Affordable |
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Commitment Required
(A full description of the requirements can be found here) |
10% of dwellings must be affordable, i.e. sold at a price not exceeding 75% of the Auckland region median house price (published by the Real Estate Institute of NZ for the most recent full month of September). In March 2015, this price was $461,250. |
5% of dwellings within the development must be affordable at a rent or mortgage repayment which does not exceed 30% of the Auckland median household income (published by Statistics NZ for the most recent June quarter). In March 2015, this price was $368,286. |
Sold/rented to | First time buyers | Community Housing Providers |
Can they be re-sold? | Yes – after three years, which means that the buyer can sell the property at a market rate. Therefore this option may not be retained as long term affordable housing in the Auckland market. | Only if the equity is retained – which means that even if a vacancy arises in a few years’ time, Community Housing Providers will always retain their equity in the affordable housing, and it will only be available for low income families in Auckland. |
One of the benefits of partnering with a Community Housing Provider on Retained Affordable housing, is that they handle the following:
- Confirm household eligibility
- Ensure affordability compliance
- Collect rent and manage government funding access
- Follow up on arrears
- Vacancy management
- Asset management and repairs
- Tenancy management
- Fostering neighbourhood cohesion
Retained affordable housing is the preferred option from a CHP perspective, as it provides a unique opportunity to deliver affordable housing for low income households in a sustainable manner over the long term. It also fosters the development of truly mixed communities – including mixed tenure and mixed typologies – by developing partnerships between developers/land owners and Community Housing Providers. Read the case studies about how this is working in Auckland now.