Home ownership a longer-term plan

A young Bay of Plenty couple has taken an unconventional journey in building their wealth.

They are prioritising business over property.

Marc Brakenrig, 30, and Ingrid Ambrosiussen, 29, moved to Tauranga from Christchurch to buy their first business — Ako Early Learning on Fraser St.

They hope investing and growing their childcare business will lead to being able to buy their dream home later on.

“We are building our wealth a different way,” Brakenrig said.

Brakenrig, 30, grew up in Waikato and moved to the South Island for university, where he spent eight years building his career as a rural banker.

His goal, however, was to one day move closer to home.

An opportunity to become the Rabobank area manager for Bay of Plenty — which has offices in Rotorua, Whakata¯ ne, Taupo¯ and Matamata — triggered the decision to move north.

So the couple decided to sell their home in Christchurch and start the property hunt in the Bay of Plenty.

“We started off looking at houses to purchase, however, once we sold our house in Christchurch we quickly realised that our money wasn’t going to go nearly as far up here.

“That started us thinking about other options.”

Ambrosiussen is a trained early childhood teacher and had always dreamed about owning her own centre. As the pair was looking to move to the Bay, Ambrosiussen was in the middle of completing her master’s thesis on the transition from early childhood to school.

“Once she was close to completing her thesis and we had decided that now wasn’t a good time to try buy a house, that’s when we started looking for a centre to purchase and created Ako Early Learning,” Brakenrig said.

“We thought we were better to take that money from the house and put it towards something Ingrid was passionate about.”

Brakenrig said the home ownership dream was now a long-term plan.

It makes more

sense to put profits back into the business, and long-term, buy the dream house.

Marc Brakenrig

“Buying a business has been really rewarding.”

By investing and expanding the business over time they will be able to buy not just any home, but their dream home. In the meantime, they will continue renting.

“It makes more sense to put profits back into the business, and long-term, buy the dream house.

“It is exciting to be investing in the future of Tauranga.”

The pair took over the new business last month and have six staff.

Ambrosiussen said the business was going well.

“It is very cool. Sometimes we have to take a step back, look at the signs and say: ‘Wow, this is ours. We love it here. The beach is a big drawcard.”