Bus conversions make property ladder scalable
Converting two buses into homes, renting out a van on a car-sharing app and buying a property two hours north of Auckland are some of the tactics an enterprising young Aucklander has adopted to get on the property ladder.
Daniel Leighton made a ‘‘strategic’’ purchase last year of 4.9 hectares of land, after coming to the conclusion he had been priced out of the Auckland market. ‘‘I don’t earn enough to justify being in Auckland indefinitely,’’ he said.
Leighton, 30, lives in the North Shore suburb of Albany and works as a Watercare operations engineer.
After living in Auckland for a decade, he wanted to buy his own piece of land.
He knew, in the current property climate, he would have to buy out of the city limits to find something affordable, but found his finances pushed him further and further afield.
After months of searching, he eventually settled on the section in Ruawai, two hours north of Auckland, in September 2016, and bought an old bus he plans on converting into a house.
Most weekends he drives up to the property he now calls home to work on getting it up to scratch for habitation.
‘‘It’s so hard with the rush, finding the time,’’ he said.
Current projects include fixing up an old tractor to do earthworks on the site, planting vegetation to shelter the property from wind and encourage wildlife, and building a solar-powered system near the cabin that currently sits on the land.
Leighton is developing the site to be as sustainable as possible.
‘‘[Sustainability] has always been important to me,’’ he said.
‘‘I grew up in a fairly isolated area, surrounded by bush – I’ve always liked that. I’ve also grown to see how essential it is.’’
He is saving to finance the project, and also rents out his secondary vehicle, an old van he has converted into a campervan, over the summer via car-sharing community app YourDrive.
That has put more than $4000 in his pocket over the past two summers.
Getting the property ready to live on within the next year was feasible, he said, though the amenities would be basic.
He is looking to make the land a place of collective ownership, offering others caught in the same property struggle an alternative land ownership route.
‘‘I want to enable the right group of people to have some sort of ownership and input into how the property is developed,’’ he said. ‘‘I’d like for it to become a sort of affordable permaculture oasis, and I think the most effective and rewarding way to achieve this is with others who have a similar mindset.’’
In the meantime, he will be converting a second old bus he has purchased into a mobile home, and he will live in that around Auckland City until his new home is complete.
"I don't earn enough to justify being in Auckland indefinitely."
Daniel Leighton