Kāinga Ora Wellington development delayed, cost rises

Tuesday, 2 January 2024

A new 80-home Kāinga Ora development has jumped in cost and is overdue, as more than 2000 people across the Wellington region wait for a home.

The Rolleston St development in the central Wellington suburb of Mount Cook was supposed to house its first tenants about July 2023. Peter Cooke, chairperson of community organisation Mount Cook Mobilised, confirmed this would now not be until February or March, 2024.

He understood the delay was down to supply line and staffing issues and cost escalations.

Kāinga Ora documents from November describe Wellington’s social housing need as “urgent” and growing. The Ministry for Social Development housing register had 789 people in Wellington waiting for a house, with a further 564 in Lower Hutt, 195 in Upper Hutt, 372 in Porirua, and 177 in Kāpiti. Most were top priority.

In December it was revealed that a separate, 300-home Kāinga Ora development on nearby Hopper St had been delayed and sent back to the drawing board. It was meant to have the first tenants in during 2023 but Kāinga Ora information now has the completion date down for 2027.

Kāinga Ora central deputy chief executive Daniel Soughtton said global and national supply chain and labour issues, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, were affecting the state housing provider.

“We know the cost of the project has increased since original conception because we have been working throughout with our construction partner tracking these,” he said.

“However, we are not yet in a position to know the final costs of the development because it is not yet complete, and we are still working with our construction partner to agree some cost sharing. ”

Civil works started at the site in August 2020 and “vertical” construction began in March 2021. Tenants were expected to be able to move in during the second quarter of 2024, he said.

'The main reason Kāinga Ora is building the Rolleston homes is need. Rolleston is part of our wider work to deliver new homes in the Wellington area and will include on-site support services delivered in partnership with Wellington City Mission.

“We have added 110 new public homes to our inner Wellington City portfolio over the past year. There are over 100 more homes coming into service in the next few months, including our 80-home development at Rolleston.”

It was reported in 2018 that work on the Rolleston St flats could begin as early as 2019 and would take about two years to finish.

The flats will be managed by the Wellington City Mission and will also have support services on-site.

City Missioner Murray Edridge said staff hiring was already underway but tenant selection, done by the City Mission and Kāinga Ora, had not yet started.

About 120 people would eventually be accommodated in the complex with the intention that people would see them as their “forever homes”, he said.

He had been inside the homes that had been completed and said they were “beautiful” and built to a high standard.