Auckland’s Pasifika are heading south

TUAKAU – Small towns on the outskirts of Auckland are reporting an influx of residents in recent times, as house and rental prices continue to rise in the city.

Pacific islanders in particular are moving south in droves.

Fifty years ago Pacific islanders called the run down streets of Ponsonby home. And when prices for inner city properties soared most were forced to the suburbs of South Auckland.

And now recent rent hikes means they’re being given the push again.

And they’re heading for Tuakau, a small town just off State Highway One, on the banks of the Waikato River, just south of the Bombay Hills – some 50km south of Mangere.

Tuakau’s population of 4000 was up nearly 20 per cent in the last census, but the number of Pacific islanders increased 73 per cent.

“They are coming because the rents are cheaper,” says Darryl Evans from Mangere Budgeting, which recently opened an office in Tuakau. “It’s about $80-$100 cheaper per week.”

Real estate agent Vern Reeve has lived in the Tuakau area for 25 years and believes its population will double in the next two years, pulling in Auckland home buyers wanting lifestyle and affordability.

Tuakau’s primary school is having to find extra resources for its expanding Pasifika population.

Principal Margaret Carr says the impact is just beginning to be felt and she expects it to snowball as more Pacific families move south.

The level of other needs for Pacific people is also growing with the Mangere Budgeting Service opening an office in Tuakau recently.

A housing development in neighbouring Pokeno and a new dairy factory are also proving attractive, but the rental market’s another matter with rental properties now in short supply.

“We are in very, very short supply. In fact it’s a major problem for us. We just do not have the properties available,” Reeve says.

Which means some Tuakau residents are having to move even further south.

“I moved to Meremere because the house is really cheap there. We are paying $260 for a three bedroom house so the kids get their own bedroom,” a former Tuakau tenant, Ma’ata Vaioleti, says.