Habitat for Humanity is offering one Hawke's Bay family a hand up into home ownership, with applications now open for the charity's programme.
Habitat Central North Island general manager Nic Greene said there was an opportunity for a family to partner with Habitat and work alongside volunteers to build a home that would "eventually become theirs".
"Our assisted home-ownership programme means families help to build their home, invest 500 hours of their own time in what we call 'sweat equity', and then rent that home for a five-year term," Mr Greene said.
Providing they met certain expectations during the "rental phase", Mr Greene said the future homeowners would then be able to purchase the home over another period of up to five years.
"They do this utilising the rent they had paid, less Habitat's expenses, often utilising KiwiSaver - and at the value it held at the time they first moved in," he said.