Rotorua Muslim community started the Islamic centre in early 2000s, by only offering the Friday prayers on the rear side of a Turkish kebab shop owned by Br. Ahyan Semiz in the town. Later in 2008, the centre was moved to the garage of a small residential property on 21, Tarawra Road owned by Br. Ahyan Semiz for Friday prayers and some prayers in the day.

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As the community grew, members started to organise at least two to three prayers in the community centre on a daily basis, alongside Friday and Eid prayers. In 2011, due to increase in Muslim population, garage was found to be too small to cater for growing community. The property was subsequently sold to Rotorua Islamic Centre (with title held by FIANZ) with a major portion of donations raised by Waikato Muslim Association on behalf of Rotorua Muslim community. Since then the main house 90m2 house on the same premises was used for prayers with some alterations to manage room for women and children.

Rotorua witnessed a dramatic rise in population from year 2015 and with the opening of more job opportunities, more Muslim families choose to migrate to Rotorua and the community Muslim grew to more than 30 families. This rapid growth in population demanded more space on Fridays and Eid prayers and efforts had been made since 2012 to develop a bigger and spacious (and expensive) Islamic Centre in Rotorua to cater the local Muslim community as well as to increase awareness about Islam and Islamic culture to locals as well as tourists (https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503438&objectid=11072351). However, the plan could not be materialised due to shortage of funds and another attempt was made in July 2017 to secure a bigger and spacious corner property on Tarewa Road. The old building was put on the market to fund the purchase of new property but there was still a shortfall of funds that could not be raised in good time and we lost a good opportunity to secure a bigger, spacious and safe community centre/Masjid for Rotorua.

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On 15 November 2019, Rotorua Islamic Association (RIA) was formally registered as a Incorporated Society with elected office holders to represent the Rotorua Muslim population and their interest.

On 30 March 2020, during the lockdown period as a result of Covid-19, Br. Amin Khan Pathan advertisement for sale of a Church at 274, Old Taupo Road, Rotorua. The property seemed to fit all the criterion for a bigger, spacious, council consented community centre with main road exposure. The vendor was expecting way above 425K for the property with a strong interest in the property from a Church group and other community group buyers from Auckland. Rotorua Islamic Association office holders unanimously accepted the proposal to buy the new property for use as community centre and Masjid.  Several rounds of negotiations were subsequently undertaken with the vendors to ensure we were able to buy the property within a constrained budget. A deal for $369K was agreed before other competitors could even inspect the property and place their offers.

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The new building is much bigger in size and more suitable in terms of space, health and safety with an opportunity for more space for the expanding Muslim community and increased interface with the larger community. It is more suitable for our children to learn and for us to worship and gather as a community. Funding attempts were stepped up in May 2020 to raise from donations to be able to purchase the new property in good time. The settlement date was set at 7 July 2020 and by 1st of July, 169,000 dollars were raised towards the purchase of the property with a massive shortfall of 200,000 dollars.  To meet the shortfall, two brothers from Hamilton and Timaru offered soft loan of 50000 dollars for six months duration and the rest of the funds were raised by way of a loan taken by three of the RIA office holders (Br. Amin, Br Iftikhar and Br Taufik) to provide it to RIA as soft loan so that all money could be paid to the vendors by the settlement date.

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Alhamdulillah, the building at 274 Old Taupo Road was finally purchased on 7 July 2020. Renovations were made to get new wiring, plumbing, Waduh areas and audio-visual connections to connect from the main and rear buildings. All the rapid renovation work was completed in good time to have first Jumma prayer on 18 July 2020 and first Eid-Ul-Adha prayer on 1 Aug 2020. Since then regular Jumma prayers and community events are held at the new premises.