- Taranaki Whānui Limited resold Wellington's Dixon Street Flats for just over $3 million, after buying it from Kāinga Ora for $1.04 million.
- The sale has been criticised by ACT's housing spokesman, who questioned Kāinga Ora's decision to sell below market value.
- The Wellington Company plans to develop 117 apartments at the site, preserving its historic status.
Iwi flipped Wellington's Dixon Street flats for just over $3 million, less than three weeks after buying the block from Kāinga Ora for almost a third of the price.
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Property records show Taranaki Whānui Limited, the commercial organisation set up to manage the Treaty settlement package for Wellington iwi, sold the landmark social housing block to a company linked to prominent developer Ian Cassels.
Both sale prices were significantly below the property's market value of $4m and the RV of $18.9m.
The flip has been criticised by ACT housing spokesman Cameron Luxton, who called on Kāinga Ora to explain why it sold the property for the price it did. “No one would behave like that if it was their own money on the line. It looks like they've scammed themselves," he told OneRoof.
Kāinga Ora central deputy chief executive Daniel Soughtton (left) said there was no guarantee the agency would get a higher price if the building was put on the open market. Photo / Laura Smith
Kāinga Ora announced last month that it had sold the 11-storey Dixon Street Flats to Taranaki Whānui Limited for $1.04m. The agreement between the two bodies was signed on June 25.
Twenty days later, on July 15, Taranaki Whānui Limited sold the building to Dixon Reboot Limited, which is linked to Cassels’ development firm The Wellington Company, for $3.04m. Both transactions settled on August 14, 2025.
Daniel Soughtton, Kāinga Ora's deputy chief executive for central, defended the sale of the heritage-protected property to iwi for $1.04m.
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He told OneRoof that when Kāinga Ora first offered the Dixon Street Flats to iwi under the Right of First Refusal (RFR) process in their Treaty settlement, Taranaki Whānui Limited had initially offered to pay a lot less.
“The opening offers they made on the property were low. We negotiated with them to bring the price up. While the $1.04m price we settled on was nearly $3m lower than the market valuation we had obtained, there was no guarantee we would get a higher price if we put the property on the open market, given its challenges and the scale of investment needed.”
The Dixon Street Flats, which had been used for social housing for more than 80 years, were closed in 2022. At the time, Kāinga Ora said the building required significant upgrades, with remediation and strengthening work estimated to cost more than $125m.
A 1943 photo shows the newly built Dixon Street Flats. The building was closed in 2022 due to repair and maintenance problems. Photo / Heritage New Zealand
Soughtton told OneRoof Kāinga Ora approached other developers with the financial means and development capacity to take on the project as part of its initial market testing. They were either not interested or cautious, he said.
“The only strong interest was from the developer who partnered with Taranaki Whānui Limited,” he said, referring to the block's new owners.
When asked by OneRoof if Kāinga Ora reached out to contact the developer directly, the state housing agency said: "No, we didn’t, as they were already working in partnership with Taranaki Whānui and involved in our discussions about the Dixon Street Flats."
OneRoof also asked Kāinga Ora who ultimately made this decision not to put the Dixon Street Flats on the open market. The agency replied that the sale to Taranaki Whānui was approved through Kāinga Ora’s "standard process for divestments".
Soughtton added: “We believed a deal with iwi that retained the land in their ownership and made use of the property for housing was a good outcome."
Housing Minister Chris Bishop: "Any redevelopment of the Dixon Street Flats is good news for Wellington.” Photo / Getty Images
Taranaki Whānui did not respond to OneRoof’s request for comment before publication. However, chief executive Kara Puketapu-Dentice told NZME in August that the iwi had already on-sold the building to a development partner. “While Taranaki Whānui will not own or manage the building, we have ensured it will continue to provide housing within the city for the future,” he said last month.
Sam Hooper, director of property at The Wellington Company, said the decision to buy Dixon Street Flats was based on the company's assessment of the building’s potential.
He told OneRoof that the company planned to deliver about 117 accessible and sustainable apartments at the site. “While others have walked away, we see it as an opportunity to preserve an important part of Wellington’s architectural history and to deliver much-needed, quality affordable housing into the city," he said.
“It is very early days for 134 Dixon Street, but we will be working closely with Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga to honour the building’s status as a Category 1 Historic Place, and with mana whenua, Taranaki Whānui, to ensure employment and training opportunities are created for whānau as part of the project. Our focus remains on ensuring Wellington’s built heritage is not lost but instead reimagined to meet the city’s future housing needs."
Hooper said the terms of its partnership with Taranaki Whānui were private. He did not respond to OneRoof's questions as to why it paid $2m more than iwi for the site.
Housing Minister Chris Bishop did not respond to specific questions from OneRoof about whether the Government had undersold the property.
In a statement to OneRoof, he said: "Commercial decisions by Taranaki Whānui Ltd are matters for them, but any redevelopment of the Dixon Street Flats is good news for Wellington.”
Commenting on the sale to iwi in August, Bishop told NZME it was “a good outcome for Wellington”, adding “I look forward to seeing what they [Taranaki Whānui Ltd] do with it."
But ACT's housing spokesman criticised Kāinga Ora over the sale. Luxton said: “If there’s a valid reason [for selling for less than market value], the public hasn’t heard it. Taxpayers will only have confidence in Kāinga Ora’s ability to deliver value for money when its decisions are transparent and defensible.
"Giving iwi the first right of refusal did not mean settling for less than market value. These assets belong to taxpayers, and Kāinga Ora has a duty to get the best possible return.”
A Labour spokesperson said it did not have enough details about the plans for the Dixon Street site stage to comment.
A Wellington City Council spokesman said there had been no recent resource consent or building consent applications made in relation to 134 Dixon Street.
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