As a medium-density housing development specifically aimed at young families, Waimahia was developed by a consortium of Māori organisations and community housing providers (CHPs), to provide affordable, quality housing, with a particular focus on meeting the housing needs of low-income Māori and Pasifika families.

This paper explores the rhetoric and symbolism of community deployed to sell residential properties at Hobsonville Point, a new government-owned master-planned medium-density development of over 3000 new, 10km to the northwest of Auckland’s CBD.