Wanaka family makes home ownership milestone with community housing trust

A Wanaka family has achieved housing independence in less than five years with the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust.

Harvey and Kirstin Kane, along with their three children, moved into their three-bedroom Albert Town home in February 2012, under QLCHT’s Rent Saver scheme.

Rent Saver is a market rental programme that combines high quality secure tenure rental accommodation with a savings incentive built in to assist low and moderate income households into home ownership.

As part of this programme the Kane family paid a market rent while saving money each week to pay for their deposit. The Trust provided a financial incentive of matching the Kane’s savings for a deposit dollar for dollar, up to $13,000, over five years.

After just three-and-a-half years in the property, the Kanes had saved enough deposit themselves – along with with QLCHT’s contribution – to buy into the property under the Shared Ownership programme.

Fast forward another year, to September 2016, and the Kanes were able to buy the Trust out in full – achieving the independence they had always dreamed of.

“With the craziness that is the New Zealand property market at the moment we are very glad we entered the Shared Ownership programme when we did. Without the Trust’s programmes we may well still be renting and faced with an impossible task ahead of us, as many others are now,” Harvey says.

Kirstin recalls walking along a nearby street watching the house being built and wishing it was them building it.

“In an economic era of unaffordable housing for middle-income New Zealanders, QLCHT provides a framework for families to be able to purchase a home. It isn't a magic wand, but it is a process which allows a family to prioritise owning the roof over their heads. There is no way we would have been able to purchase a home here otherwise,” she says.

“I think the main value in the Trust programmes for us was being able to choose when to move from Rent Saver to Shared Ownership on our own schedule,” Kirstin adds.

QLCHT executive officer Julie Scott says the Trust is delighted to see households transition through its programmes so quickly.

“It’s great to see households moving through the housing continuum to independence within such a short space of time. Our programmes are there to offer a hand-up for the household when they need it – we’re a stepping stone to independence, not a lifetime partnership.”

The Trust is presently building an 11-lot development in Albert Town, Wanaka, which will provide a mixture of tenures, including Shared Ownership, Rent Saver and Affordable Rentals. In Queenstown, the Trust has recently completed a 44-lot mixed tenure development at Shotover Country.

ENDS

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