Nadene Lomu says she needed to find a way through her grief after Jonah died, so she went back to what she used to love – real estate. Photo / Supplied
By Sharon Stephenson, Stuff
Mention the name Lomu and your mind no doubt goes to the late rugby legend Jonah Lomu.
But almost eight years after the former All Black died, there’s another Lomu making their mark on the world, and particularly the Pasifika community – Jonah’s widow, Nadene Lomu.
As well as raising the couple’s sons, Brayley, 14, and Dhyreille, 12, on her own, Lomu has spent the past two years working full time as an estate agent for Harcourts, based in the Alexandra Park office in Auckland.
Of Samoan and Māori (Ngāti Porou, Ngāphui) descent, Lomu has a passion for helping Pasifika get, and stay, on the property ladder.
“Of course I work with vendors and buyers of any ethnicity, but I have a real passion for our people, of connecting with them and gaining their trust. It’s something that Jonah and I had in common,” says Lomu, who lost her husband in November 2015 following a heart attack linked to his kidney disease.
Lomu’s “patch” reaches mainly across South Auckland and includes the street named after her husband, Jonah Lomu Drive.
She says the main issue she’s encountered while dealing with the Pasifika community is a misunderstanding about the buying and selling process.
Lomu says her clients 'know I’m there to help and have their best interests at heart'. Source / Facebook
“Often people don’t understand how contracts work, or that they’re legally binding. They may have signed a contract to buy or sell a house without fully understanding the commitment because it hasn’t been fully explained to them or because they might not be fully comfortable with the process.
“I will give them advice on what it means and direct them to a lawyer, if they don’t have one, so that they can go through the contract line by line.”
Seeing families who can’t raise the funds to get into the market is also heartbreaking.
“Sadly not all families can quite get there in terms of financial resources, even though they’re working really hard. That’s hard to see.”
‘I have a real passion for our people, of connecting with them and gaining their trust. It’s something that Jonah and I had in common,’ says Nadene Lomu. Source / Supplied
Lomu says she’s heard her share of horror stories, or how members of her community have been burned by various get-rich real property schemes.
“They weren’t my clients, because I’d never get involved in such a scheme, but I’ve heard several examples of people sold new build properties off the plans who were told they would make $100K when they onsold it at completion.
“But when it came to completion, they weren’t able to sell it for that much, so they didn’t have the money to settle and defaulted on the agreement. That means they were stung with default interest payments, which is an awful situation to be in.”
The key, says Lomu, is giving her clients good advice.
“It’s about building trust with clients so that they know I’m there to help and have their best interests at heart. My Pasifika clients trust me to do the right thing for them because buying a house is one of the biggest transactions of most people’s lives, so it’s important to get it right.”
Lomu’s road to real estate started in 2000, after a stint working at the former NZ Press Association.
“I bought my first house in Wellington when I was 21,” says Lomu who was born and raised in the capital. “And then I slowly moved up the property ladder.”
She met her late husband in 1997, when he would pop into her mother’s pasta shop on The Terrace.
“Jonah didn’t even eat a lot of pasta, but we became friends.”
Lomu gave up her property management company in 2007 when the couple moved to France for Jonah’s rugby career.
“He wanted me to take over the global management and logistics for his brand, so I did that. When he passed, I took over this legacy work, including running the annual Jonah Lomu rugby scholarship programme. The aim is to eventually create the Jonah Lomu Foundation.”
Lomu with her sons in 2018 at the unveiling of Jonah’s headstone. ‘I’m a single parent and I’m trying to keep a roof over my sons’ heads, so I’ll keep going,’ she says. Alan Apted / Stuff
Juggling that legacy work with a full-time job and raising two children solo means Lomu doesn’t have much spare time. What she does have she devotes to her cosmetics company, Nadene Lomu Cosmetics, a range of eye, lip and nail products.
“After Jonah passed, I needed to find a way through the grief by returning to what I used to love. So I went back to real estate, and I also love cosmetics and how powerful they are in terms of making someone feel good about themselves. Jonah would comment all the time on how good I looked, and I knew how that made me feel, so I wanted other woman to feel the same way. “
Lomu is also working towards settling her late husband’s estate. ‘It shouldn’t have taken this long, and it hasn’t been an easy journey, but I’m a single parent and I’m trying to keep a roof over my sons’ heads, so I’ll keep going.”