Westpac NZ has partnered with Central Pacific Collective to support shared home ownership arrangements in the new Our Whare Our Fale housing development in Eastern Porirua, with families receiving the keys to their new homes this week.
Westpac NZ provided mortgages to all 18 of the new homeowners, through shared home ownership agreements. A further 32 homes are scheduled to be built next year, with 300 planned by 2030.
Fa'amatuainu Tino Pereira, Chief Executive Central Pacific Collective, says collaboration and partnerships have been critical to get to this point.
"Enabling Our Whare Our Fale has been a journey of many years and we're grateful to everyone who's been involved.
"We're pleased to have Westpac as our banking partner and acknowledge the support they have provided to our homeowners.
"We are not just building homes; we are building hope, stability and belonging for generations to come."
Helen Ryder, Westpac NZ Managing Director Consumer Banking & Wealth, says Westpac is excited to be supporting the development.
"We've been working with Central Pacific Collective for a number of years and are particularly pleased to have been able to help with the design of the shared home ownership scheme for Our Whare Our Fale," Ms Ryder says.
Pasifika families in the Porirua region were able to apply to purchase houses through Our Whare Our Fale. Through the shared home ownership pathway, Central Pacific Collective contributed up to 40% of each house's purchase price with homeowners able to buy them out over time. Westpac supports shared ownership arrangements and can meet families' borrowing needs with standard mortgages.
"The latest census data showed just 19.9% of Pasifika people in Aotearoa owned their own home in 2023, compared with 66% of all New Zealanders," Ms Ryder says.
"We want to help make a difference so it's really positive to be working with Central Pacific Collective on a development of this scale."
In 2023, the Westpac NZ Government Innovation Fund provided a financial grant to support the physical design of the development.
Our Whare Our Fale takes inspiration from Pasifika villages, with two, three and four-bedroom dwellings all built to provide options for intergenerational living.
All the homes face towards a central communal fale, which is available for all homeowners to use for community gatherings, support services and celebrations.
Sustainability has also been a consideration in construction and solar panels throughout the development provide community solar power, supporting ongoing lower power costs for homeowners.
Central Pacific Collective was founded as a charitable trust in 2014 to support Pasifika health service providers in the Central North Island. Since that time, its purpose has evolved to improve general wellbeing of Pasifika people, including through the provision of housing.
New homeowner experience
For new homeowner Erin Millar and her family, the journey represents a profound shift.
"After meeting the CPC team and learning about Our Whare Our Fale, I started to think that homeownership could actually be possible for me," she says. "The answer had always been 'no', but this is a life changing moment for me. In the last eight years we've had to move four times. Our new home will bring stability, and certainty to me and my whānau."
