What is Papakāinga housing? | AUT Kāinga Matters

Welcome to Auckland University of Technology’s (AUT) Research Matters! 🚀 AUT’s Research Matters video series is where AUT academics answer everyday questions about their fields of expertise. Get the answer to those questions you’ve always had – or maybe never knew to ask. What’s the difference between a kāinga, a papakāinga, and a standard housing development? 🏡 From shared living and whānau dynamics to affordability and access, papakāinga housing is often talked about, but not always well understood. Can papakāinga exist off ancestral land? How do you actually get involved if you can’t afford a house? Does it have to be designed by a Māori architect and are these spaces only for Māori? AUT’s Jade Kake is unpacking how papakāinga works in practice, who it’s for, and how it could help reshape housing in Aotearoa in her latest episode of Kāinga Matters. Chapters 00:00 Introduction 00:33 What’s the difference between a kāinga, a papakāinga, and just a normal housing development? 01:50 Hundies for papakāinga, but how do I stop my aunty from coming over to talk to me EVERY day right when I’m about to leave for work? 02:33 What’s pepper potting, and what’s it got to do with kāinga? 04:00 I don’t want to move back home. There are no jobs and it’s full of old people. Can papakāinga be not on whānau land? 06:02 I can’t afford a house. How do I get in on this? 07:37 For those of us who whakapapa Māori, how do we find out if our iwi or hapū are developing housing, and how do we get in on that? 09:09 Does a papakāinga need to be designed by a Māori architect? Because honestly there don’t seem to be that many of you around. 10:18 I love this vibe, but I’m Pākehā. Are papakāinga only for Māori? 🔗Check out more on Jade Kade: https://academics.aut.ac.nz/jade.kake 🏠 Understanding key barriers to the delivery of multigenerational housing in New Zealand (2025) https://www.branz.co.nz/pubs/research-reports/er115/ ➡️ Rewi. Āta haere, kia tere (2023) https://www.masseypress.ac.nz/books/rewi 📖 Rebuilding the Kāinga. Lessons from Te Ao Hurihuri (2019) https://www.bwb.co.nz/books/rebuilding-kainga 🏘️ Check out Cohaus in Grey Lynn https://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/news/2025/11/cohaus-development/ ℹ️ Information at Māori Land Online https://www.maorilandonline.govt.nz/