A new housing development to house 49 families of the New Zealand Defence Force opened yesterday in West Auckland.

Photo: RNZ / Claire Eastham-Farrelly

Mayor Phil Goff officially opened the homes at Whenuapai.

Last year the Defence Force became a victim of Auckland's housing crisis when it struggled to find 75 homes for members of the Defence Force and their families.

The homes were built as part of the Whenuapai Housing Development, an iwi-led partnership made up of Pare Hauraki Iwi and Te Tumu Kāinga.

Partnership chairman Paul Majurey said there were a lot of Maori in the Defence Force and said it was important to keep iwi connected to the housing project.

"So many of our people are Māori people in the Defence Force and so there's both commercial aspirations but also providing homes, much needed homes, for our communities."

Mayor Phil Goff welcomed the housing initiative and said Auckland needed more quality housing.

"It's a guaranteed return and a safe return for iwi, but it's a great thing to do for the city. We need more housing, we need to build it to scale and at pace and in this contract, the Whenuapai Housing Trust have shown that this can be done."