Richard Woodd, TPIA Executive Committee
Social housing specialists SoHo Group’s development manager and general counsel Brad Davis, gave an excellent illustrated talk about their New Plymouth apartment project, a joint venture with Kainga Ora on February 21. It will be handed over on completion to KO by April 2024.
He had an interesting journey to find and purchase the site for this 3-level, 44-unit, $26 million project comprising one and two bedroom flats, on the corner of Leach and Cameron streets, opposite Pak ’n Save supermarket.
“When I first started with Soho Group I was asked to fly to Wellington and do a road trip across the North Island back to Auckland. The aim was to get a feel for different regions and to seek new opportunities. This led me through Masterton, Levin, Dannevirke, Bulls, Palmerston North, Whanganui, Hawera, Stratford, New Plymouth and across to Napier-
Hastings. Spent about a day and night in each place.
“On my return, presenting to directors my findings about where we should focus on next it was New Plymouth by a comfortable margin. Because the general vibe, orientation towards the water [he is a keen surfer], great hospitaiity, outdoors / adventure / lifestyle, made it hands down the most enjoyable and memorable all-round experience of the road trip. New Plymouth is certainly a place with a very bright future ahead and the potential to pull away from the rest of NZ in terms of the quality of its economy and quality of life.”
The key players in provision of state housing are:
Ministry of Housing and Urban Development: policy driven, allocates funds to affordable housing fund, Maori housing fund, public housing; manages these aspects and new feasible models.
Kainga Ora: predominantly public rental housing supply, develop on their own land and purchase from market, also have progressive home teams. KÄinga Ora provides tenancy services to 200,000 customers and their whÄnau and owns and maintains 69,000 public houses, focuses on providing tenants with good quality, warm, dry and healthy homes.
Community Housing Providers: mostly not-for-profit organizations, often faith based or iwi-based organizations who provide tenancy management services across the housing continuum, such as Habitat for Humanity.
SoHo (an abbreviation of Social Housing, although they also build market housing), works primarily with local councils, Ministry of Social Development and Kainga Ora, in many different regions. The relationship is such that SoHo is trusted to find and purchase appropriate sites.
Brad Davis said: “Our primary focus on where we build comes from where houses are needed, and unfortunately that is across all New Zealand."
“New Plymouth has a waitlist of over 750 people on the Public Housing Register and demands new affordable housing solutions for critical worker(s) (such as teachers, nurses, students) to ensure it can continue to attract and retain young talent."
“If New Plymouth (and the wider Taranaki region) want to attract and retain talent, then the appropriate type of affordable housing needs to be delivered."
“Given the natural beauty of New Plymouth, the lifestyle it can offer, and its strong base of established infrastructure, this city has a real opportunity to distinguish itself from other cities of similar populations and become a real hub for young, qualified and hard-working people."
“This of course is easier said than done, but the opportunity is certainly there for New Plymouth (more so than most other cities) and Soho is keen to be a part of getting this area to maximize its potential -and this starts with the Leach Street development. Unexpectedly deep foundation issues increased costs by a significant (unstated) amount of such magnitude that abandoning the project was an option at one stage."
“The margins are tight. SoHo’s profit on such projects is 12.5-15 percent, but it’s acceptable to us as a low-risk ongoing business relationship.”
Need help or
support?
