- Zuhaib Bangash sold his home to Australian investors to cover debts and avoid liquidation.
- The buyers will rent the home back to Bangash and his family at below market rate.
- Bangash, known for donating $1m in food to the homeless, plans to start a food truck business.
A kebab shop owner who gave up to $1 million in food to homeless and needy people has sold his home to Australian investors just in the nick of time.
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Zuhaib Bangash, who arrived in New Zealand as a refugee and built his kebab business from scratch, was forced to sell his home on Woodbank Drive, in Auckland’s Glen Eden, after he found himself unable to pay his debts.
Ray White listing agent Sahil Mehta stepped in to sell the property after it passed in at auction with another agency.
Mehta said Bangash was “going through liquidation”, and needed to find a buyer before the bank stepped in and ordered a mortgagee sale.
He said interest in the property exploded after OneRoof published an article about Bangash’s plight. “I then received 90 emails and around 50-plus calls,” he told OneRoof.
Zuhaib Bangash in 2019. He says he knows in his heart he has to help people. Photo / Seven Sharp
Bangash managed to sell his Glen Eden property for under $900,000. Photo / Supplied
“We got four offers. The lowest offer was $800,000. The offer which got accepted was $845,000.”
The Australian buyers had been on a property-buying trip to New Zealand and were willing to settle in three days, just before the bank’s deadline.
They will also rent the home back to Bangash and his family.
For the kebab shop owner, the timing couldn’t be better. He faced a court hearing for IRD debts on May 22. “Since [the sale] went unconditional, we emailed all parties, and [Bangash’s] major debts will be covered,” Mehta told OneRoof.
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Bangash has had to sell his kebab stores as well as his home, but, Mehta said, he was in the process of setting up a food truck business.
Bangash made headlines several years ago when a local business association took issue with his charity work, telling him it encouraged anti-social behaviour in the neighbourhood.
Bangash was undeterred, telling news outlets at the time that he felt duty-bound to help those less fortunate than himself.
Bangash had been providing free kebabs to Auckland’s homeless for a couple of years, but the numbers turning up for help exploded after a social media post about his charity work went viral.
When Seven Sharp interviewed him in 2019, he said the cost of feeding rough sleepers jumped from hundreds of dollars to thousands of dollars, but he was happy to give back. “One thousand, two thousand, three thousand, four thousand is no problem. I will spend money on needy people.”
The house’s new owners plan to rent the property to Bangash and his family. Photo / Supplied
He told Seven Sharp that if every businessperson gave $100 to a homeless person, New Zealand wouldn’t have a problem with homelessness.
In an article published on Kāinga Ora’s website in 2023, Bangash explained how he had ended up in New Zealand. He said his wife had died unexpectedly in 2012, and his work in human rights in Pakistan at the time put him at risk with the Taliban. “Suddenly here I am, a widower with five kids, and I needed to build a different life,” said Bangash.
Shortly after arriving in New Zealand, he experienced homelessness and spent a week sleeping in a park in Manukau. A man who owned a local kebab shop gave him food each day, and then a job.
“His kindness helped me so much. It is funny because these days, it is me giving out free food. I am grateful because I got the support when I needed it, and now I am in a position to be able to help others,” Bangash said.
The new owners of Bangash’s home had flown to New Zealand for a five-day real estate trip, Mehta said.
The good news for Bangash is that they will rent the property back to him at $690 per week, which is below market rental, Mehta said. “That’s below the median rental appraisal.”
Mehta has a history of saving owners from mortgagee sales, having sold a house within a week earlier this year in similar circumstances. That was why Bangash contacted him, Mehta told OneRoof.
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