A South Auckland family living in a hotel room for almost six months after their rental was flooded and they lost all their possessions in the storm has taken an unexpected move into home-ownership.
The couple and their two children were moved into emergency housing and put up in a Manukau hotel when their Mangere rental was flooded in January.
They were initially given two hotel rooms, but as time progressed, the family of four was squeezed into one hotel room and it was there when they dared, for the first time, to think about buying their first home.
Harcourts salesperson Alex Dunn, who has permission to share the couple’s inspiring story, said the family had never thought home-ownership would be possible and only started thinking about it when they were living in a small space and facing a lot of uncertainty around when they could return to their rental home.
Start your property search
“They hadn’t been looking at all and then when they were in the hotel and realising it was not an ideal situation and they didn’t really have much control, they reached out [to] a mortgage broker that we work quite closely with.”
Read more:
- Revealed: Where it's cheaper to buy a bigger house
- How TV reno champ turned ‘nasty’ South Auckland rental into dream home in just 30 days
- Rich-lister mansion back on the market after $13.5m sale
The couple’s first application for a home loan was rejected and their mortgage broker made a list of recommendations around tidying up spending history and savings which they carried out over three months. They were both in full-time employment.
“They followed all of his recommendations to a tee, came back to him and he reapplied for their application for lending, and they got through with flying colours.”
Dunn, who worked with the couple as a buyer’s agent, then showed them about 12 different homes all over South Auckland.
They eventually fell in love with a 1960s three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with a double garage and sleepout in Mangere marketed by Ray White Manukau, which they bought for $845,000.
The previous owners paid $750,000 for it in 2018, according to OneRoof records, and renovated it before deciding to move overseas.
Their "perfect home" has been fully renovated inside and out and has a nice flat section. Photo / Supplied
“It was just a really, really good property and not too far away from where they were living and not too far away from family and work and all the rest.”
The couple’s hard work paid off and last weekend they finally moved from the small hotel room into what they have described as their “perfect home”.
“They are so happy, like over-the-moon happy. It’s so good to be able to do that with young families.
“They are the only ones in their families that are homeowners and they never thought it was achievable for them to be homeowners. So, it’s a real credit to them to taking the steps to improve their financial situation and then get pre-approval and then actually start building something for their future and their kids.”
Dunn believes it is a good time for first-home buyers who have between the high $700,000s and early $800,000s to spend, adding that the same house in Mangere would have fetched about $1m two years ago.
“There’s plenty out there in that price range, it’s just finding something that really suits people’s needs.
“It’s just really important to have the right broker giving you really good advice, which they got, and having an agent that they build a connection with like they did with us, and actually giving them properties that are relevant to their budget, to their lifestyle that suits all their needs.”
- Click here to find more properties for sale in South Auckland
