Retired businessman Roger Fewtrell, 76, made his fortune as the founder of Southern Hospitality and is now giving away $25m to help first-time house-buyers. Photo / Ben Tomsett
At 76, a Dunedin multi-millionaire has decided to spend the final act of his working life not on yachts or golf courses, but in muddy subdivisions helping strangers buy homes. Ben Tomsett speaks to a self-made man about why he’s giving back in such a big way.
Standing among six new duplexes in one of his latest housing developments, Roger Fewtrell takes a step back.
“I’d rather give people a hand up, really,” he says.
“We build homes and we sell them for market value, and then I chip in a hundred grand towards the mortgage or the deposit. It gives them a bigger deposit, a smaller mortgage, and they can generally buy a home for less than they’re paying in rent.”
Fewtrell, who made his fortune as founder of hospitality supply giant Southern Hospitality, is now using it to tackle what he sees as one of New Zealand’s biggest inequities: the near-impossibility for ordinary working people to buy their first home.
“In New Zealand, you’ve got Kāinga Ora and people like that at the bottom of the cliff looking after those who’ve got nothing,” he says.
“But people, probably a bit like you – working hard, trying to buy your own home, no one helps them at all.”
Over the next decade, he intends to build 250 homes and lose $25 million doing it.
“That’s the budget, to lose $25m,” he laughs.
“But we’ll get 250 couples into new houses, and Dunedin needs new housing stock. Dunedin’s been good to me, so it’s nice to put something back.”
The idea came to him after selling his company to a French private equity firm several years ago.
“They paid a good price for it,” he says. “And I’m 76. What are you gonna do with all the money?”
So he drew up what he calls “a pretty simple plan”.
Fewtrell’s life is a study in self-made wealth.
He arrived in Dunedin from Australia in 1974 “with a wife and a little boy and not much else”.
After working for two local companies supplying restaurant and hotel equipment, he saw an opportunity.
“I started Southern Hospitality in 1989,” he says.
“There were three staff, and we ended up with 300 and 14 branches around the country.”
It became New Zealand’s largest hospitality equipment supplier, servicing everything from cafes and bakeries to hospitals and hotels.
“We opened in Australia too,” he recalls. “That looked like a good idea at the time, but it cost us $8m to get out in the end...”
He shrugs at the memory. “There’s no guarantee in business. You just give it a crack, really. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. As long as you make four out of five good decisions, you’re pretty right.”
Asked for advice to young entrepreneurs, his message is direct.
“Just do it. If you’ve got a reasonable understanding of what you’re doing and a bit of experience, go ahead and do it. You’ll make plenty of mistakes, but it’s not that hard.”
Fewtrell’s company now has 15 active subdivisions across Dunedin, ranging from small two-home lots to a major 68-house development.
“This one here’s got six duplexes, that’s 12 homes, and another three standalones on top, so 15 in total,” he says.
“We’ve got enough land for about 170 homes at the moment.”
The goal isn’t profit.
“We’ll spend $25m doing it,” he says.
“But we’ll get those families out of renting. They’re paying off something that’s theirs.”
Buyers don’t have to apply through the government or win a ballot.
They simply need to show they’re working, saving, and serious.
The homes are built by local tradespeople, “local builders, local architects, local planners,” though he admits, “and unfortunately, local councils as well, which is just an absolute pain in the ass.”
Council red tape, he says, is the project’s biggest hurdle.
Still, progress continues.
“Between July this year and March next year, we’ve got 43 houses starting construction,” he says.
“We’ve already had our first first-home buyers move in. Another eight will be in by Christmas.”
Fewtrell’s philanthropy is personal, not corporate.
His children, one a roofing contractor in Sydney, the other a small business owner in Dunedin, are financially independent.
“They don’t need my money,” he says. “So I might as well help people who are a bit in need.”
He’s encountered all kinds of buyers: “Young couples wanting to start a family,” and “Blended families where life’s turned to s**t for them, they’ve got together, starting out again, like first-home buyers really.”
The reaction from the public, he says, has been heartening.
“People like what we’re doing. A lot of them have kids in the same situation, battling to save a deposit. I think probably I’m the world’s worst property developer,” he laughs.
Land acquisitions come from all corners of the city.
“We’ve bought off everyone, from old doctors with six acres of garden they can’t manage anymore to builders who had dreams of doing what we’re doing but never had the money.”
Fewtrell never left the city that gave him his start.
“Dunedin’s been pretty good to me,” he says. “It’s a nice, easy city to get around. It’s got an interesting harbour and peninsula. There’s very little trouble here ... It’s just a nice place to live,” he says.
“I came over here with nothing. Now I get to see families move into their first homes. That’s better than sitting on a pile of money, isn’t it?”
The project is expected to take at least 10 years.
“Most likely longer,” he admits. “I won’t be here by the time it’s finished. But we’ve started, and it’ll roll on.”
Ben Tomsett is a multimedia journalist based in Dunedin. He joined the Herald in 2023.