Infrastructure funding is provided to assist both individual whānau and the development of papakāinga on whenua Māori as follows:

• For individual whānau it is to prepare their whenua for private housing by helping build infrastructure between the boundary of the whenua where the house will be built and the existing infrastructure network.
• For papakāinga builds, the key objective for this assistance is to make undeveloped Māori land available for housing, when the cost of basic infrastructure would otherwise be too great a burden to add to house construction costs.

These infrastructure works are over and above what would be part of the normal cost to build a house. It is not intended to subsidise the houses, nor pay for what would normally be part of the cost of building a house in a rural location.

What can the grant be used for?

Infrastructure items can include:

• a roadway to the house from the road
• necessary site works required to enable a house to be built
• significant or long phone and power connection lines and poles, to get electricity to the build site
• connecting to sewerage and storm water reticulation systems
• water tank specifically for firefighting purposes
• in certain circumstances, solar electricity, generators or wind turbine installation.

When we support infrastructure for homes on papakāinga or whenua Māori, it may be more cost effective to do so for the whole site in anticipation of additional whānau owned homes being built in the future. In many cases we have invested funding for infrastructure capacity for papakāinga that allows the papakāinga to later increase the number of homes and grow alongside whānau and community needs. It is usually more cost effective to put in sufficient infrastructure to allow for some future growth, than to add infrastructure later.

Infrastructure works that would normally be part of a standard house build such as a single water tank and a septic tank, are not eligible for an infrastructure grant. These items can be covered by a Kāinga Whenua Loan or other bank loan application.

What whenua is eligible     

The infrastructure for the proposed new housing must be on whenua Māori. 

Whenua Māori in this context means:

• Māori Freehold Land registered in the Māori Land Court as a Māori title, OR
• it may include land in General Title where it once was Māori title (pre the compulsory conversion to General Title from 1967 for example), OR
• is in the process or intention of being converted back into Māori title, OR
• is considered to be Māori ‘customary’ land with clear and demonstrated tikanga, history or other matters of significance (for example adjacent to a marae), meaning it is ‘attached’ to the ownership and kaitiaki of the whānau/hapū.

What level of funding is available?

Funding can cover up to 100% of the agreed infrastructure costs. Economies of scale may be realised in multi-home papakāinga.  To understand what be available to support your planning, please contact a regional office near you. Typical grants are in the range of $50,000 - $100,000.

Demand across the rohe exceeds the amount of funding Te Puni Kōkiri has available.  We cannot fund every proposal that meets our criteria, as much as we would like to. 

For more information on what funding is available and what has been delivered go here.

Resources

The Papakainga Development Process

A video of the papakainga masterclass from the February 2021 National Maori Housing Conference, sponsored by the Australian Housing Institute (AHI). Paora Sheeran (Sheeran & Associates) provides a “Papakainga Development 101” for whānau and rōpū interested in finding out how to progress their housing aspirations on their whenua.

 

Guide to Papakāinga Housing

The ‘Guide to Papakāinga Housing’ provides an overview of the papakāinga development process including the steps. Usually preceding this step is a completed project feasibility.

Papakāinga planning tools

Demand for information and guidance for papakāinga developments is high.  Whānau are keen to understand how they can utilise their parcels of whenua to build safe, warm, dry and affordable housing.  Here are some handy tools to help with your planning and preparation:

• Papakāinga planning & feasibility checklist – what you need to know and document in order to be “shovel ready” [PDF, 618KB]
• Project Viability Assessment Tool (PVAT) [XLSB, 2MB]

Papakāinga toolkits

Councils and regions have developed their own Papakāinga Toolkits to assist whānau and rōpū with their planning. These resources provide greater detail on the steps to develop a papakāinga. They are both generic and recognised by the organisations that have supported their development.

• Te Tai Tokerau Papakāinga Toolkit
• Ngāpuhi Papakāinga Toolkit
• Waikato Māori Housing Toolkit
• Hastings Papakāinga Development Guide [PDF, 9.2MB]

Kāinga Whenua Loans

The Kāinga Whenua Loan Scheme is an initiative between Kāinga Ora and Kiwibank to help Māori achieve home ownership on their multiple-owned land.

The loans are available for both Māori land trusts, and individuals with a right to occupy their multiple-owned Māori land. 

For more information, please refer to the Kāinga Ora website

Need more info, or want to apply for funding?

Go here for further resources that support papakāinga development.

Click here to register a housing enquiry with a regional office near you.

For more information on your whenua go to the Tupu website.