Property investor takes mentor role
Super cars and financial tips are not what are usually associated with a charity for children, but Nick Li and the charity he works with are using them to help children in need.
Auckland-based Li is not your usual philanthropist. The 31-year-old is a property developer, owns a mixed martial arts gym, The Combat Academy, with top New Zealand-based UFC fighter Dan ‘‘Hangman’’ Hooker, and has a supercar collection.
But he wanted to help out people who were struggling and that led him to get involved with his friend Mustafa Sheikh’s charity, which works to mentor and inspire underprivileged youth.
Li said the Bread Charity was about realising dreams and he hoped that by sharing the story of how he used property to build wealth he might inspire others to do something similar.
‘‘My family made me aware of the importance of owning my first home as early as I could. I read up a lot about it during my teenage years and, to make money in high school, I used to clean the classrooms.’’
After leaving school, he had half a dozen different jobs and small businesses but home ownership remained a priority and he bought his first property at the age of 24.
To do so, he got a 70 per cent mortgage to buy a three-bedroom penthouse apartment in Princess Wharf which cost $500,000.
Li said the purchase was a complete disaster as the apartment was a leasehold and he soon encountered the hidden operating costs – and an 80 per cent plus increase in the ground rent.
‘‘I realised I had to re-educate myself about the basics of New Zealand property. I then renovated the property and put it back on the market. It took almost a year to sell but, luckily, I still made a small profit.’’
Not only did he learn a lot from the experience but that first home allowed him to refinance and then leverage off it to make further steps into property.
Li’s company, Ever Forward Development, buys land and builds new houses on it. He said the turnover for a non-complex residential house project was eight to 10 months, including consenting and code compliance certification, and the profit on the build was about 10 per cent.
Most of his capital is reinvested in his company, which works with Ka¯inga Ora and KiwiBuild.
‘‘But this world has more meaning than material assets and I want to actively assist others in this journey of life. One avenue for me to do that is the Bread Charity, which I have been associated with for the past few years.’’
The Bread Charity runs mentoring programmes, which include goal
setting, education and career planning, and research development skills, as well as a uniform and clothing fund for children in low-decile schools.
To finance its activities, it relies on donations, volunteer work and charity drives. The most high-profile of these has been its annual Supercar Charity Rally in Auckland. Li and his cars play a role in this but he also plans to do guest speaking spots in the mentoring programmes and take his cars out to show the children.
‘‘I want the kids to realise that I was just like them once and give them a little guidance along the way. A little inspiration to fuel their dreams.’’