
How we got started
The Whaingaroa Raglan Affordable Housing Project came into being in 2017 when a small group of concerned community leaders came together to air their concerns about the impacts of ever rising house prices in Raglan.
The Raglan Community House manager Mike Rarere, was observing an increasing number of visitors to the centre expressing stress about the cost of housing and short term rental contracts that saw tenants being moved out of their homes just before Christmas as landlords took advantage of short term, high income rental opportunities over the busy summer season.
In some cases families were resorting to living in cars, tents and other poor quality options in order to make ends meet. Business owners were struggling to find accommodation for staff, especially over the summer, the school roll was dropping and it was apparent that there was a trend towards those on lower incomes being forced to leave town to find more affordable housing elsewhere.
Earlier efforts to secure affordable housing had been initiated as far back as 2000 when other committed community members had produced reliable research predicting this trend of rising prices and gentrification impacting on the diversity and economic viability of the town.
The WRAP team realised that it would be necessary to engage district, regional and central
government agencies as well as enlist the support of investors, philanthropists and registered
community housing providers if Raglan was to be successful in building affordable neighbourhoods.
The formation in May 2020 of the Waikato Community Lands Trust now provides a mechanism for land purchased or gifted, to be reserved in perpetuity for the community of Raglan to build homes that could be sold using supported financial arrangements to those in need. Land would remain in
community ownership with home owners paying a small leasehold to contribute to the ongoing
work of WRAPl
Timeline
Below you can see the WRAP timeline and if you scroll down you can see a detailed view of each milstone.

Timeline - extended
• Expression of Interest submitted by Raglan Community House to Vital Impact (Housing) grant for 2018
• Grant application submitted 9th February 2018
• Project Lead appointed.
• Waikato District Plan Review research
• Waikato District Plan Review submissions lodged.
• Presentation of results of research for 2018
• District Plan Review submissions acknowledged
• Expression of Interest lodged for Waikato Community Lands Trust Board trustee appointment
• Initial meeting with landowner Wainui Rd re affordable housing options
• 5th Feb WEL Energy Trust VI grant participatory meeting – 5 short-listed applicants
• 17th Feb District Plan Review hearing appearance 9: Business and Business Town Centre
• Project 1 discussions with land owners begin
• Paua Architects site visit Project 1 + quote for phase 1 concept work received
• Project 2 discussions with land owner begin
• Project 3 discussions with land owner begin
• Tiny House conference 2020 stand – education + networking
• WRAP website development
• Comms – Local Rag article + call-out to local investors/philanthropists/potential partners
• Discussions with WCLT + finance re development of Raglan impact investment fund + micro-homes financing product
• Project 1 green light + launch concept design phase?
• Contact James Shaw re WRAP housing initiative follow-up
• Pursue Kainga Ora discussions via Waikato Region Housing Initiative + Habitat for Humanity