“I don’t know about you, but I’m going to say yes”

When Fineasi and Thiry’s Papamoa rental home of 13 years went on the market, their thoughts turned to homeownership; a place where the Pasifika-Māori family could raise their kids without worrying about it going up for sale.

As luck would have it, an ad for Habitat Central’s rent-to-own Progressive Home Ownership opportunity popped up on Facebook not long after.

“It was quite funny – I don’t normally click on links on Facebook but we’d been thinking about it and I thought I’d just try,” says Thiry.

Fast-forward through a whirlwind of a month, and Fineasi and Thiry were celebrating the news they’d been accepted for a new three-bedroom home. News that was so exciting for Fineasi, who answered the call at work, that he had to go home for the day as he could no longer concentrate.

Habitat’s Regional Development Manager, Ralph, invited them to view the under-construction house from the roadside to make sure it would meet the family of seven’s needs.

“He said, if you need time we’ll give you to the end of the week to decide. I said to Fineasi, I don’t know about you but I’m going to say yes!”

From then on, every time the family went out, they’d always take a drive by their new house to check out the progress.

“That’s how excited we were,” says Fineasi. “Everywhere we went, we always had to come to this street to have a look before we went home.”

Family, friends, and the Habitat team came together to celebrate at the end of October as they received the keys and were welcomed into their new home. While they say it felt like home right from day one, leaving their old house was tinged with sadness.

“We loved that house,” says Thiry. “When we moved there, we just had one child and when we left we had five.”

“It was the first house we moved to in Papamoa and since then, we didn’t want to go anywhere else – I just love living in Papamoa.”

Thankfully, their new house is not far away. Over the next 10 years, they will work towards purchasing their home, paying affordable rent that will contribute towards a deposit when they’re ready to take out a mortgage.

The house was valued before the family moved in, and this became the agreed purchase price. This amount will stay the same, regardless of how property values may change over time.

As part of their agreement with Habitat, the family are working to complete sweat equity hours – a way of paying it forward in their community. Fineasi has been volunteering at Habitat’s new Mount Maunganui ReStore charity shop during the weekends.

Almost four months after moving in, the family are settled and enjoying their new home, although they’re still sometimes struck by moments of disbelief.

“We’ll be sitting here having a coffee and it’ll come up and we’ll say ‘oh man, I still can’t believe we’re here’”, says Fineasi. “It means a lot to us.”