first home

 

PHOTO: SUPPLIED From left to right Lima Silipa, Grace Lauina, Mativa Lauina, Zurielle Lauina and Zion Lauina. The family is standing outside the Tamaiki affordable rental that they will have the right to buy in five years.

Grace Lauina and her family had got used to paying $600 a week for a “substandard” four-bedroom Pakuranga Heights rental property.

But last month, all that changed.

They moved into a new, affordable four-bedroom home in Tamaki. Even better, in five years’ time they’ll be given the chance to buy it.

How does it work? It’s an example of a rent-to-own scheme in action.

Lauina, a childcare administrator, her mother and her husband, Mativa Lauina, a painter and plasterer, spent four years in the private rental market before they were accepted into the Housing Foundation’s system and placed in a house.

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