Te Toi Mahana’s new CEO ready to tackle housing problems

Thursday, 13 February 2025

Jonathan Manns started his role as chief executive for Te Toi Mahana on Monday.

While there is no “silver bullet” to fixing Wellington’s unaffordable housing, Te Toi Mahana’s new chief executive believes community housing providers (CHP) are the way forward.

Jonathan Manns, who is starting his new role as chief executive for Te Toi Mahana on Monday , says he is passionate about driving the best possible outcomes for existing and future tenants.

“Tenants are absolutely at the heart of everything that we do and we will do as an organisation.”

For the past 20 years, Manns has been involved in the design, delivery, and the management of tens of thousands of affordable homes in both the UK and New Zealand.

For him, it was more of a passion than a job.

“I love the direct and very tangible connection with decisions you make about buildings and the impact it has on people's lives.”

In December, there were 20,301 applicants on the Housing Register list in New Zealand. But Manns said that barely scratched the surface in terms of the need for housing.

Whether it was living in car boots, or sheds or garages, or couch surfing, or in overcrowded accommodation, so many of those pressures will be hidden from view, he said.

The affordability problem has worsened over time. The proportion of renting households spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs is up from less than 20% in 1988 to over 40% in 2021.

Manns was previously senior director at commercial real estate services firm JLL.

When asked what he wanted to achieve in his role, Manns replied “as much as possible”.

Delivering new development to increase housing stock, leveraging the opportunities provided by the gift of properties and funds by Wellington City Council, finalising a new facilities management contract, supporting tenants, fostering innovation, and driving sustainable growth were all on his to-do list.

“We know not only is there a clear and pressing need, but construction of housing pays back threefold into the economy through the construction alone.”

Manns is moving on from his role as senior director at JLL, a real estate and investment management firm. He has worked extensively as an urbanist and city planner and spent a large part of his career advocating and campaigning about housing security, affordability and homelessness.

“I've been very lucky to see the lenses through which lots of different stakeholders perceive the built environment and the way they try and approach very similar challenges.”

Manns is taking over from Angelique Jackson, who took an extended leave of absence for unknown reasons.

In an email statement to The Post, Jackson did not address her departure, but said “leading the transition of housing from Wellington City Council and successfully establishing a new community housing provider was a personal and career highlight”.

“I'm delighted that Te Toi Mahana will have someone of Jon's calibre leading this next phase and wish him and the team all the best.”

Andrew Turner, Te Toi Mahana’s Christchurch-based chairperson also declined to comment on Jackson’s absence.

Te Toi Mahana is the community housing provider that took over the Wellington City Council’s struggling housing portfolio in 2023 after it was found to be losing $30,000 a day.

The trust manages about 1650 properties throughout Wellington and has turnover of 13% of tenants annually.

In its establishment, the Government agreed to provide Te Toi Mahana with income-related rental subsidies (IRRS), which sets rent at 25% of a tenant’s income with the Government topping up the rest.

The operating subsidy both reduces the rent for eligible tenants and funds the trust at market rent levels, which improves its financial position.

Manns said the social return through schemes like IRRS was “an exceptionally good bang for buck”.

“They [subsidies] extract greater social value from the investments made with public money into the housing space.”

But only new tenants are able to receive IRRS, meaning there are disparities around rent with existing tenants paying less than newcomers. Currently, 11% of all tenants are able to receive the subsidy.

The council gifted Te Toi Mahana ownership of five properties worth $10.7 million. They were transferred from the council to Te Toi Mahana in September last year.

In addition, $23m in cash was given, which remains with the council and can be drawn upon to increase the supply of social housing in the future.

Te Toi Mahana chair Andrew Turner said the board intended to finalise a property strategy in the near future. It will consider the opportunities the property and cash provides, and look to new builds and opportunities to increase the supply of social housing.

Manns said forming a plan as to where to funds would go would be on his desk on the first day.