 Farming and rural industries remained the dominant characteristic of Otara throughout the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.Following World War II, Otara was developed by the Auckland Regional Authority as a State Housing area.Otara is the home of the "Otara Global Village" developing in the old relocated Baird's Intermediate school which was moved to the new site of the Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate and renamed SEHC Middle School

The Village now houses a Kohanga Reo, a Maori language pre-school, a Koe Oaga Faka Niue – Fatamanu – pre-school, an alternative School for Boys and New Zealand's first Secondary/Tertiary College – Vaka Moana, an integral part of the Manukau Institute of Technology as well as anumber of Community groups

The suburb achieved a mild degree of worldwide fame with the one-off hit single "How Bizarre", by hip-hop artists OMC.