A First for New Zealand – and a Major Milestone for Te Awa Lakes

For the first time in New Zealand an Infrastructure Funding and Financing (IFF) Act levy was used to unlock a major residential development – and Te Awa Lakes is the project that made it happen.

To mark the occasion, Housing Minister Chris Bishop, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka, and Hamilton East MP Ryan Hamilton joined regional mayors, iwi representatives, and the Te Awa Lakes team on site – a gathering that reflected just how much momentum is behind this community.

What the IFF levy means for homebuyers

Delivering a new community like Te Awa Lakes requires significant upfront infrastructure – water, stormwater, roading – before a single home can be built. Traditionally, those costs get bundled into house prices, making new homes more expensive from day one.

The IFF levy changes that. Up to $50 million of essential bulk infrastructure will be funded through the levy and repaid gradually over 30 years by the community it serves – meaning those costs don’t have to be loaded onto purchase prices upfront. For buyers, that’s a real and direct difference in what they pay to get through the door, and it’s a smarter way to fund growth: infrastructure costs spread across time, not stacked onto the people trying to buy their first home.

Doing it together

The event brought together Housing Minister Chris Bishop, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka, and Hamilton East MP Ryan Hamilton, alongside Waikato District Mayor Aksel Bech, Hamilton City Mayor Tim Macindoe, Waipā District Mayor Mike Pettit, members of the iwi and tangata whenua working group, NIFF representatives, and the Te Awa Lakes team – a rare alignment of central government, local councils, iwi, and private enterprise around a shared table and a shared purpose.

“This is a collective problem that involves a collective solution,” Minister Bishop said. Waikato District Mayor Aksel Bech put it another way: “If you want to travel fast, travel alone. But if you want to travel far, you travel together.” That spirit has been at the heart of Te Awa Lakes from the beginning – and it was very much part of our future.