Earlier this month we briefed our neighbours, residents and staff about our decision to scale back plans to buy neighbouring properties in order to build an extra 200 retirement accommodation units. We now aim to sell land we have acquired in Hawkings Crescent for 29 townhouses that will be rented to workers and their families, addressing the severe shortage of accommodation in Kerikeri suitable for this part of the workforce.
We already have resource consent for the development. We plan to sell the land to a community-focused developer or philanthropist who shares our vision of affordable rental accommodation for young service-sector employees, and who will take on the development on a build-to-rent basis. We are discussing options with various agencies and have already approached one significant investor.
We want a community investor to develop this project as we feel it’s beyond both our budget and our core capability, and we think it’s important to stick to doing what we do best.
We envisage that the homes will be rented on a long-term basis and at a price-point that will make them more affordable than the homes that currently comprise the bulk of Kerikeri’s rental housing stock. We aim to have 15 of the 29 town houses ear-marked exclusively for rental by Village staff.
We are sensitive to the community’s concerns around the potential proliferation of social housing in this area and it’s an issue we ourselves have been highly vocal on. That’s why the proposed development is not intended for use as social housing. We intend for any sale of the land to include an agreement that it would not be used for this purpose.
Our focus is clear and strong – we want this land to be used to enable people working in our local service industries to make a start on their families and careers in our wonderful community.”
Kerikeri is growing like crazy and there is a huge demand for service businesses in sectors such as health, wellbeing, property, care, travel and engineering. But these businesses are handcuffed because they can’t find the staff they needed in order to service demand.
A big part of the reason for this is accommodation. There are very few affordable rental options for young people just starting out on their careers or for people working in Kerikeri service businesses.
Aged care providers like us are experiencing this first-hand. We are all struggling to get the staff we need because Kerikeri is unaffordable for them and commuting options are also limited and increasingly expensive.
We’ll be ploughing the funds raised from the sale of the Hawkings Crescent land back into our Village facilities. We still intend to build more ‘independent living’ retirement accommodation but have drawn plans back from 200 additional units to just 80.
