New homes at the Ranolf St and Malfroy Rd complex were blessed this week. Photo / Kelly Makiha
It has taken over five years, but Rotorua’s biggest Kāinga Ora housing development with 50 homes is finished.
The final 13 houses at the Ranolf St and Malfroy Rd complex were blessed on Tuesday by Ngāti Whakaue kaumātua and kuia.
Tenants will move into the two-bedroom homes from next week.
They were a scaled-back version of a 24-apartment plan scrapped by the Government last year after a review of Kāinga Ora’s spending.
Kāinga Ora bought the long-vacant land in June 2021 for $6.45 million and built the homes in three stages.
The third stage of construction cost $4.8 million, or $376,000 per house.
The 20,000sq m site now has 12 one-bedroom homes, 13 two-bedroom, 20 three-bedroom, and five four-bedroom.
The modular one-bedroom units became locally known as the “container homes”, for their shipping container-like appearance during construction.
Their more than $630,000-per-unit price also sparked criticism.
Kāinga Ora Waikato and Bay of Plenty regional director Mark Rawson said 401 new homes had been built in Rotorua by Kāinga Ora during the past two financial years. A further 25 would be finished by the end of June.
Kāinga Ora Waikato and Bay of Plenty regional director Mark Rawson. Photo / Kelly Makiha
As at August 31, Rotorua had 1165 state homes.
There were 808 households on the Housing Register in Rotorua, down from 894 listed in September 2023.
Rawson said Kāinga Ora was trying to only house Rotorua people in the new homes.
He said he examined the figures from July 2025 to June 2026 and found that of 298 Rotorua placements, only five (or 1.7%) were whānau from other areas.
Rawson said some people moving into the Ranolf St and Malfroy Rd development had been living in temporary housing, making it an important step towards greater stability for them.
The 50-home Kāinga Ora complex on the corner of Ranolf and Malfroy streets is complete.
“These homes provide a strong foundation for the future, close to the local services and amenities customers need, including schools, healthcare, shops and public transport.
“All our tenants have a housing support manager assigned to them who knows the local area and will support them as they settle into their new home,” he said.
The new homes were built using standardised designs, which he said made construction quicker and more efficient.
A $110,000 pilot programme providing residents of the complex free use of bikes and e-bikes, revealed by the Rotorua Daily Post in 2024, is no longer operating.
Julie Nathan, who lives in one of the “container homes”, said it was great to see the new houses finished. She had lived at the site since March last year and loved it, especially after living in emergency housing for 10 months.
She admitted she was one of the first to say “you can’t put our whānau in shipping containers” but having lived there for more than a year, she said it was “beautiful”.
Despite the noise and disruption of the construction during the past few months, she praised the workers for their long hours getting the homes built.
“I would make them fry bread or savoury muffins on cold days.”
Ngāti Whakaue kuia Norma Stirling and kaumātua Rawiri Waru at the blessing of the final homes to be built at the Ranolf St and Malfroy Rd complex. Photo / Kelly Makiha
Rotorua Intermediate School principal Garry De Thierry said having students living in better housing had flow-on effects for their education.
“It’s awesome knowing that an increasing number of students, who were experiencing the uncertainty of temporary whānau accommodation, now have the stability of a warm and permanent place to call home.”
He said housing complexes did sometimes come with their difficulties.
“Living in a high-density housing environment can result in a range of social challenges, which I’m counting on the experiences of social agencies to monitor and support whānau through.”
Kāinga Ora sells Fenton St land
Meanwhile, a nearby Kāinga Ora-owned site is on the market.
The site on the corner of Fenton St and Seddon St was once home to the Boulevard Motel, and then the agency’s transitional housing hub.
Bayleys Rotorua is marketing the sale, describing it as an “exceptional landholding” that “presents one of Rotorua’s most significant redevelopment opportunities in recent years”.
The former Boulevard Motel land on Fenton St. Photo / Kelly Makiha
The site spans about 6596sq m across six individual titles and could be bought by a developer for housing, apartments, townhouses or commercial development.
Kāinga Ora has been criticised for its spending on the property.
It bought the former motel in 2021 for $8.1m and spent more than $3m to turn it into transitional housing hub 2six5 on Fenton.
After age-related issues surfaced, Kāinga Ora tore the building down this year to put the land on the market.
Rawson said the property was being sold in a different market from the one in which it was purchased.
The former Boulevard Motel on Fenton St. Photo / Andrew Warner
“While the property remains on the market, we are not going to speculate on the outcome of the sale.”
He said the property was acquired in 2021 as part of the Government’s urgent response to housing need in Rotorua, and the decision was made in accordance with the policies, processes and approvals that applied at the time.
Asked whether Kāinga Ora conducted an internal review of the money spent, he said there was no basis for such a review given the situation at the time.
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.
