Cohousing Legal & Finance Summary

Unit Titles

All dwellings have their own Unit Title similar to an apartment block. This type of home ownership is a standard New Zealand home ownership option and recognised by banks for gaining mortgages. Each home owner owns their home and the land directly beneath their home, the land around the homes is on a separate title that is owned by the Body Corporate.

Body Corporate

There will be Body Corporate fee of an estimated $4000-$4,500 per year per household that contributes to the commons. This includes your home insurance, internet bill and refuse collection that are included in the BC fee so you don’t need to pay for these separetly. As well as the cost of maintaining of the common land and assets.

*This is currently an estimated annual cost designed to give an indication of cost, the first year Body Corporate fees will be provided before the deposit for your home is required.

Not for Profit

This development is led by Mōhua Ventures, a registered charitable business that is owned by a charity Te Hapori Hauora. The sale prices of the homes are the actual costs of building these sustainable structures, including the cost of the common house and land.

Deposit

To secure your home, we ask people to give a loan of $50k NZD minimum (which is returnable should they not wish to continue with a home purchase). When the project is ready to start construction, loans are converted to deposit. We are required to take 30% deposit from the community, 10% minimum from each household but to make that possible others need to put in over 30%. Any money that is over 30% earns interest to support people putting in more to support the whole. This worked well for Neighbourhood 1 as a way to support an intergenerational community, allowing young families to put in 10%. Each person is still liable for 100% of their own home.

Have more questions about the legal or the finance side of living in cohousing?

Contact us: kiaora@takakacohousing.co.nz