![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ray-young-da-1-jpg.webp\")
\u200bRay ‘Junior’ Young. Photo: Daniel Alvey <\/p>\nAfter 20 years of turning his Canterbury state house into a home, Ray \u2018Junior\u2019 Young is being forced to leave, with no say in whether he can stay.<\/p>\n
K\u0101inga Ora is planning to sell the West Belt property in Lincoln and relocate the 72-year-old.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Junior does not want to leave and does not know where his next home will be.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the hardest part because I don\u2019t know where I\u2019m going; that\u2019s up in the air,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t slept \u2013 there is that much s*** going through my head at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The house is one of about 900 K\u0101inga Ora properties being sold nationwide each year as the agency renews its portfolio.<\/p>\n
K\u0101inga Ora said Junior\u2019s home, which was built in 1947, was being sold due to its age and condition.<\/p>\n
\u200bRay ‘Junior’ Young. Photo: Daniel Alvey <\/p>\n
But Junior said there was nothing wrong with the house and believed it was only being sold for financial gain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey used to think about people, now they\u2019ve turned.\u201d<\/p>\n
The house is a duplex, with Junior\u2019s neighbour also having to leave.<\/p>\n
The property has an RV of $740,000, but a real estate agent told Selwyn Times the 1320sq m property could be sold for more than $1 million.<\/p>\n
Currently, Junior is expected to be in the home until the end of March before K\u0101inga Ora will relocate him. The agency cannot sell the house until he has left.<\/p>\n
Junior was living in Christchurch when K\u0101inga Ora, then Housing New Zealand, offered him a place to live in Lincoln.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got a phone call from a lady from Housing New Zealand to say there was a place in Lincoln, and I laughed, and she asked, \u2018Why are you laughing?\u2019 and I said I was born and bred in Lincoln, and it looks like I\u2019m going back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since moving in, Junior has made the place his own, keeping the property in good shape and building a large vegetable garden.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe day I walked in here, there was four foot of grass from the front to the back fence, and there were overgrown hedges and three overgrown plum trees, and I whacked it all back.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ray-young-da-2-jpg.webp\")
Junior is concerned his new home may not have space for a vegetable garden, which he relies on. Photo: Daniel Alvey <\/p>\n
Junior is concerned his next home will be smaller and may not have a garden, or that he could be moved to a unit in Christchurch.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I go to a concrete jungle, it\u2019s going to cost me an arm and a leg for veggies because I won\u2019t be growing them anymore, and that sort of thing bugs me.<\/p>\n
\u201cWherever I go now, it will just be an extra 50-odd bucks for veggies.\u201d<\/p>\n
K\u0101inga Ora Canterbury regional director Liz Krause said the agency would continue to support Junior throughout the relocation process.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand that moving can be difficult, particularly when people have lived in a home for a long time and have strong connections to their community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that Mr Young is a keen gardener and we are working closely with him to find him another K\u0101inga Ora property that is right for him, which may take some time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Krause said K\u0101inga Ora owns 27 homes in Selwyn and will deliver a further nine homes in Rolleston by the end of June 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 20 years of turning his Canterbury state house into a home, Ray \u2018Junior\u2019 Young is being forced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-627931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}