WAIPAHU, Hawaii -- Tuesday was move-in day for more than 80 residents at a new apartment complex in Waipahu.

The apartments are coming on the market as the demand for affordable housing goes up.

First-time homeowners Gerald Chung and Jaire Keiki waited in line for keys to their new home -- a unit in the brand new Plantation Town Apartments in Waipahu.

"Oh, it's about time, put it that way. We've been looking for about two years already, and just last year, when we found out this was being built, it was like, might as well jump on it," Keiki said.

The apartments are priced as affordable housing, and were developed in a partnership with the state's Housing Finance and Development Corp.

"There's no question. There's a very strong need for affordable housing, especially in this Leeward-Waipahu area, and this project does satisfy that need," Hawaiian Island Homes Ltd. founder Peter Savio said.

Although the housing market is cooling with the slowing economy, the project's developers and brokers said they are confident the prices will draw more buyers.

Prices range from just over $130,000 for a junior one-bedroom apartment to just over $290,000 for a three-bedroom unit.

Chung and Keiki received the keys to their new two-bedroom unit that costs about $230,000.

"More and more it came up, we got more and more excited. Now, we're here, and we're just blessed to have it," Chung said.

About half the 330 units have been sold so far.