- Zuhaib Bangash, a former refugee, spent $1 million feeding the homeless but now faces losing his home.
- Bangash needs to sell his Glen Eden property quickly to avoid a bank mortgagee sale.
- Real estate agent Sahil Mehta is helping Bangash, who is "going through liquidation," find a buyer.
A former refugee who has spent up to $1 million of his own money feeding the homeless is now racing to save his own home from mortgagee sale.
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Glen Eden Kebab shop owner Zuhaib Bangash made headlines 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.
Zuhaib Bangash in 2019. He says he knows in his heart he has to help people. Photo / Seven Sharp
Bangash has just over a month to sell his Glen Eden property before the bank steps in. Photo / Supplied
However, he has now fallen on hard times himself and needs to sell his four-bedroom home at 29 Woodbank Drive, in Glen Eden, before the bank does.
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 for 29 Woodbank Drive in just over a month or the bank would step in.
The four-bedroom, one-bathroom home sits on 462sqm of land and has an RV of $950,000.
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Mehta has a history of saving owners from mortgagee sales, having sold a house within a week in similar circumstances. That was why Bangash contacted him, he said.
Bangash, who came to New Zealand as a refugee, told OneRoof that he couldn’t bear to see people living rough, saying that in his heart, he knew he had to help, even if it meant living in a rental property.
He estimated that since the pandemic, he and his businesses had given away around $1m of food and other donations both here and overseas.
He said he had franchised his Glen Eden shop and was hoping to do the same with his Glenfield outlet. He is also helping his son set up another kebab shop in Hamilton, and is sending money back to his family in Pakistan.
The house at 29 Woodbank Drive, in Glen Eden, has an RV of just under $1m. Photo / Supplied
Bangash appeared on Seven Sharp after the local Glen Eden Business Association told him to stop feeding homeless people from his Glen Eden Kebab shop on Sundays because it was causing anti-social behaviour.
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, 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 peoples.”
He told Seven Sharp that if every businessperson gave $100 to a homeless person, we’d no longer have a problem with homelessness in New Zealand.
In an article published on Kāinga Ora’s website in 2023, Bangash was said to be feeding hundreds of people in need from his two kebab shops in Glen Eden and Glenfield.
In the article, 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 from 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. Recognising Bangash needed help, a man who owned a local kebab shop gave him food each day, and then a job working at the shop.
“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,” he said at the time.
Bangash's family lived in a Kāinga Ora home in the mid-2010s but were able to move into their own home.
- 29 Woodbank Drive, Glen Eden, Auckland, is for sale by negotiation
