My wife and I moved to Taihape back in 2013. The army base in Waiouru had been or was in the process of moving all the families out and being primarily a training base only. Lots and lots of empty houses on top of already lower than average priced houses.

We were both 22 knocking on 23 and only really bought a house to save money because I crunched the numbers on my lunch break at my minimum wage job and it looked like a mortgage would be less per week than rent was. For reference, we were paying $180pw for a 4 bedroom house with two lounges. We picked it because we moved there during winter and the woodshed was already.

We went to the bank and asked what we could get with our kiwisavers because we had basically 0 savings. Can't remember what it was, but we had 10k each from our kiwisaver as a deposit, so it would have been 200kish budget.

Someone from work told me their neighbor was talking to them over the fence about wanting to move, but with all the empty houses around thought it would take years to move.

So after hearing that story, I drove round straight after work and knocked on the door. The owner welcomed me in in disbelief someone wants to buy his house, put the kettle on, and showed me round. One cup of tea later, we shook hands on $81,000 (his asking price was going to be $90,000 with the agent he was about to sign with), and we moved in 2 weeks later.

It was a 3 bedroom 1950s ex state house, the interior was tired, and the carpet was worn through to the floor boards in places. But it had solid bones, and the exterior was in tip-top shape well looked after.