Te Kāinga buildings
You can find out more about our buildings on our Te Kāinga Apartments website.
Te Kāinga Aroha – 52 one, two, and three bedroom apartments at 197 Willis Street. Currently tenanted, sign up to the mailing list to be notified of future availability.
Te Kāinga Te Aka – 48 one and two bedroom apartments, visit the Te Kāinga apartments website to see current vacancies and to arrange a viewing.
Te Kāinga Te Weu at 53 Boulcott Street has a further 37 apartments. We will provide updates on this building when we have more information.
Sign up for updates
To get the latest news on this programme and to find out when Te Kāinga apartments are available, sign up to our mailing list:
Te Kāinga mailing list
Target group
The aim of the Te Kāinga programme is to provide secure, affordable and long-term rental accommodation in Wellington that can be accessed by those on medium to lower incomes and may otherwise find it difficult to access appropriate housing options in the city.
Council resolved to update the criteria on 8 December 2022. This included making certain industries that created the most jobs for the city a priority, as per the Council’s Economic Wellbeing Strategy. These are:
- Public sector
- Public transport
- Hospitality
- Tourism
- Healthcare
- Education and training
In making the above change to the criteria the Council also added the following industries:
- Māori organisations
- The arts
- Start-ups
Priority criteria for apartments
Anyone can apply for a Te Kāinga apartment, applications are prioritised based on the following criteria:
- People on incomes under $95,000 for an individual and $150,000 for a couple or family and who are not eligible for income related rent.
- People who do not own their own home.
- People who work in, or intend to work in:
- Public sector
- Public transport
- Hospitality
- Tourism
- Healthcare
- Education and training
- Māori organisations
- The arts
- Start-ups
Where there is more demand than we have available units, applicants will be selected by ballot.
We will review the criteria over time to ensure the programme continues to meet the needs of the city.
Rents
Rents are assessed against the Wellington Housing Affordability Model that helps us understand what housing is affordable and for whom.
Wellington Housing Affordability Model (76KB PDF)
Rents will be assessed annually.
Rent increases will be kept to a minimum and only when it is necessary to ensure the programme continues to have no impact on ratepayers. Increases will not be linked to market rent.
This means the apartments remain more affordable than private market rentals over time. This gives our tenants added financial certainty as well as security of tenure.
More information
Te Kāinga is managed by a dedicated team within the Council’s Build Wellington business unit.
For more information on this programme or to make contact with the team email: tekainga@wcc.govt.nz