Rotorua first-home buyer Liam Benfell works his way to property ownership at age 21

Liam Temara-Benfell, 21, is the proud owner of his first home, which he has been saving up for since he was 14. Photo / Andrew Warner

Liam Temara-Benfell has been saving to buy his first home since he was 14 and, with his partner, has reached the goal at just 21 — without family financial help.

To save up, the Rotorua man worked part-time in his teens, then took on a full-time job at the Māori Land Court while also studying full-time to get his law degree, and he now works for a Māori trust.

His seven years of hard work meant he missed out on some “regular teenage experiences”. But when he and his partner — a 20-year-old health worker and student who the Rotorua Daily Post agreed not to name due to the nature of her work — walked into their Ōwhata house on January 20, they both knew their sacrifices were worth it.

“It was quite surreal, quite crazy,” Benfell (Tainui, Ngāti Awa, Tuhoe) told the Rotorua Daily Post.

“All of our furniture wasn’t due to arrive until the Saturday, but we were so excited that we bought a couple of foam mattresses and slept on the floor; had takeaways on the carpet.”

Benfell said he and his partner, who had also worked and saved from a young age, got the keys as soon as they could.

“Once we got there, we didn’t want to leave. It was really amazing - something to call our own.”

Benfell is sharing his story as the latest Real Estate Institute of New Zealand data shows Rotorua’s median house price has reached $590,000, up 4.4 per cent from $565,000 in December 2022.

The young couple’s home is a newly renovated property on a cul-de-sac. It was listed for $450,000, but they managed to get the price down to $430,000.

The deposit was around $60,000, which Benfell said they covered through their savings, KiwiSaver, and a Kāinga Ora first-home grant of about $4000. The grant of up to $10,000 is available to people who have contributed to KiwiSaver for at least three years and meet other criteria.

“I’ve been making Kiwisaver contributions since I was 15. I’m a big advocate for saving early,” Benfell said.

He said the house had a new interior and a “really tidy, awesome exterior”.

“The main thing that drew us to Ōwhata was the community.”

After seven years of work and saving, Liam Benfell and his partner have bought their first home, in Ōwhata.

Benfell said he had been “constantly working and saving” for seven years to buy a home.

The law graduate works full-time as the programme design and delivery leader at Tūaropaki Trust, a Māori land entity based in Taupō, while also studying to complete his master’s degree.

“The ultimate goal was financial security and setting up for our descendants. That was the main driver,” Benfell said.

“A lot of our family joke that my partner and I skipped straight to our 30s.”

Benfell said while it was difficult to miss out on the experiences of a typical teenager, he tried to run his own race.

“The critical thing for me was also not worrying about what my peers were doing.”

Even with Benfell’s work history and savings, getting a home loan was not easy.

“We actually tried with three different banks at first,” Benfell said.

“It was really difficult to get it approved, and we had to jump over hurdles and hurdles and hurdles.”

Liam Benfell, 21, is the proud owner of his first home, which he bought with his partner. Both had been working and saving since their early teens.

Benfell said the main reason for the banks’ reluctance was that he and his partner only had one full-time income.

The couple tried Westpac, their own bank, as a last resort.

“Westpac was just phenomenal. It was a really smooth process.”

Benfell’s advice for other young people looking to buy a home was to look a their “small spending”.

“A lot of people look at their big spending and cut out the big things, but we found the useful thing for us was to cut out regular coffees and sushi, looking at our subscriptions.”

Benfell said he and his partner were also mindful of how they travelled, to save money on petrol.

Above all, Benfell said he was grateful for his partner’s support and his family’s advice.

“The advice and encouragement from my parents and my grandparents, who are homeowners themselves, was really helpful,” Benfell said.

“What’s always kept me going is that I know the sort of aspirations that my tūpuna had for me.”

His mum, Trina Benfell of Mamaku, said Liam stood out for his maturity and drive from a very young age.

“He was not your average child. Even at primary school ... he was always well-dressed and articulate.”

She and her husband were “beyond proud” of his achievements.

“He worked very, very hard ... for him, there was no such thing as failure. It was fall and get back up - that’s what he taught my husband and I.

“Our son is inspiring.”

First National principal and Rotorua REINZ spokeswoman Ann Crossley. Photo / Stephen Parker

First National principal and Rotorua REINZ spokeswoman Ann Crossley said Benfell was “not your typical first-home buyer”.

“Good on him,” Crossley said.

“You don’t see that very often.”

Crossley said it was “lovely” to see how Benfell had made home ownership his priority and how his family had set an example for him.

“The sooner young people can get into the property market, the better. It opens more doors for them later on.”

In general, Crossley said first-home buyers were buying at the lower end of the market, some in the $500,000 or $400,000 range.

“There’s some great options out there for them.”

According to REINZ, median house prices in the Bay of Plenty decreased by 5.1 per cent in December to $875,000.

That month also saw the lowest volume of house sales in the Bay of Plenty, Canterbury, Northland, Taranaki, Tasman, and Waikato since 2010.

REINZ chief executive Jen Baird said the drop in sales was leaving buyers with a lot of choices.

“With interest rates rising, buyers’ ability to secure finance and service a mortgage remains a key driver to buyers taking their time. As a result, properties are spending longer on the market.”