PHOTO: Kim Samuel and her family now own their house thanks to YouOwn. Supplied photos.
Bay of Plenty families who do not fit mainstream mortgage criteria are now moving into their own homes, with the help of a new co-ownership programme.
YouOwn is a privately-funded programme which launched in the Bay of Plenty last September.
It is designed to solve the deposit gap (particularly for first home buyers) by taking a small ownership stake in the new property.
After five years people can use their equity to buy out YouOwn’s share, so eventually people own their property outright.
BayTrust has made a $2 million impact investment into YouOwn which will help fund 20 home purchases in Tauranga, Rotorua, Taupo and the wider Bay of Plenty region – the first of which are now beginning to settle.
Tauranga hairdresser, Kim Samuel, and her builder husband, Corey, have just bought a five bedroom home on Cameron Rd, Gate Pa, with Kim’s parents and help from YouOwn.
Both couples will live there along with Kim and Corey’s three young children.
“We’re all pretty excited,” Kim says. “We finally did it! The housing market here in Tauranga is so crazy. We have been trying to buy for a few years but we were always just a few dollars short of our 20 per cent deposit. We couldn’t quite get there.”
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