Budget Breakdown: A New Zealand Architect’s $96K Plan to Become a First-Time Homeowner

Buying a home is expensive business. Looking to become first-time homeowners but without deep pockets, New Zealand architect William Samuels and his wife took a different tack. "When we looked at the housing market the only homes within our price range were in poor shape and unable to provide us with the level of comfort that we were after," explains William. "So we chose to build our own to ensure that it matched our expectations for livability."

It quickly became apparent that even if they were going to do so, they wouldn’t be able to afford land in the first place. This led to the idea of renting land and designing a prefab to place there. And then in the future, they thought, when they buy land of their own, they could easily relocate the home and expand upon it as needed.

"The real advantage is our ability to build a home to live in for a few years without having to pay for the land," says Samuels. "The lease agreement becomes a stepping stone toward eventually obtaining a freehold property."