Westpac NZ and Community Housing Aotearoa (CHA) have unveiled a three-year partnership to support more New Zealand families to access affordable, healthy homes.
Community Housing Aotearoa (CHA) is the leading representative organisation for community and social housing providers throughout New Zealand.
The organisation comprises over 160 members, including registered community housing providers, social service organisations, developers, builders, local councils, and researchers. These members share a common objective of achieving positive social outcomes by increasing the availability of affordable housing.
The partnership involves funding the creation of the CHA HUB, an online platform designed to offer tools, resources, and expert insights to CHA members.
“Getting more Kiwi families into their own homes requires a joined-up approach between community housing providers, lenders, builders, planners and local and central government,” Community Housing Aotearoa chief executive Paul Gilberd said.
“Having an online information hub for our members will help us all work better together to ensure all New Zealanders are well-housed.”
“All of our members can benefit from the solutions and expertise Westpac is contributing as part of this partnership. And ultimately, that means all of Aotearoa will benefit.”
Westpac NZ managing director of institutional and business banking, Reuben Tucker, emphasised the importance of supporting CHA and uniting the sector to achieve a greater collective impact.
“Community housing providers could help tens of thousands more New Zealanders into their own homes through innovative and carefully structured solutions using shared equity and leasehold models, but they need support to scale up,” Tucker said.
“Collaboration will be critical in bringing additional affordable and social housing to market. We also welcome the government’s recent announcements to support community housing providers to build more social housing in communities across the country.”
“At Westpac we recently committed to increasing lending to the affordable housing sector to at least $1 billion by September 2027. So far this financial year we’ve lent more than $330m to families participating in affordable housing schemes, and we’re keen to work with Community Housing Aotearoa’s members to continue this momentum,” Tucker added.