– Ohakune house prices have fallen by $100,000, benefiting first-time buyers and reviving the market.
– Agents report increased activity, with more locals buying homes after last year’s economic slump.
– Average property prices have dropped 21% to $469,000, making homes more affordable for buyers.
First-time buyers are reaping the benefits of a $100,000 fall in Ohakune house prices, with agents telling OneRoof that the housing market in the small town on the edge of Mount Ruapehu is slowly coming back to life.
Local buyers had almost disappeared from the market since the start of the slump. Last year’s high-profile mill closures put the squeeze on the local economy and curbed any remaining appetite to buy.
However, lower prices and cheaper home loans have pulled the market from the brink in recent months.
Tall Poppy agent Kath Campbell said the turnaround in the town’s property fortunes was significant. In 2022, he identified just two first-home buyers in Ohakune and neighbouring Raetihi; this year, he’s dealt with seven.
Mount Ruapehu’s ski fields, which Ohakune serves, found their groove this year after a long spell of uncertainty. Photo / Supplied
Ohakune had been squeezed by falling tourist numbers and mill closures. Photo / Supplied
Bayleys agent Jenny Dekker, who also sells in the district, has noticed a similar awakening in the market. She has sold five properties to first-home buyers, telling OneRoof that there was a steady trickle of locals returning to the district.
“Buyers are out there,” she said. “They are being very mindful of what they pay because of the employment and the conditions of living here. But if they buy, they’re usually getting a very nice house and a great lifestyle to go with it.”
At the height of the market, first-home buyers weren’t even competing, said Dekker. “About eight years ago, I was selling properties to young local families, but not after prices started to rise.”
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The latest OneRoof figures show the average property in Ohakune has tumbled by 21% (-$128,000) in the last three years to $469,000, with the majority of the properties for sale in the town now sitting in an affordable price bracket.
Dekker recently sold a four-bedroom home with award-winning gardens on Arawa Street to newlyweds Allayne Wallace, 36, and Kahl Elers-Green, 29.
The first-time buyers, who are from the local Te Ātihaunui-a-Pāpārangi iwi, couldn’t believe their luck when their offer was accepted.
Newlyweds Allayne Wallace and Kahl Elers-Green are thrilled to have a foot on the property ladder. They bought Arawa Street after saving for four years for a deposit. Photo / Supplied
“For Kahl, this is a dream,” Wallace told OneRoof. “I’m a bit older, so I knew this was going to happen. When we got approved, it was like, ‘Wow, we’re approved to buy a home. This is amazing!’”
The couple had started saving for their deposit in 2021, which was a daunting time to consider buying a home in Ohakune. They initially planned to build a home on family land, whilst living with Wallace’s parents, but family events forced them to change tack.
Even though they faced a steeper climb, the couple were undeterred, and by the start of this year, they had enough saved to get finance approval. “We thought, ‘cool, we’ve got a healthy deposit’, and we reached out to a mortgage advisor, Bryce Helms, in Auckland.”
Their first offer on a home was declined, but their second attempt landed them the keys to Arawa Street. Wallace told OneRoof that she was keen to share their story with other first-time buyers “because I do see some stressful stories” on social media. “We’ve been very blessed. The whole process has been very enjoyable. Even when we put in an offer on the first house and it didn’t work out, we knew we’d get there, and we did.
“We found a beautiful home within our price range. We were like, ‘Oh my God, what a bonus.’ We feel incredibly blessed.”
A smart three-bedroom home at 45 Snowmass Drive, in Ohakune, is looking for buyers with over $500,000 to spend. Photo / Supplied
For sale for $529,000 is a four-bedroom home at 33 Willow Lane, in the town. Photo / Supplied
Dekker said recent problems in the nearby ski fields had led to a decline in investor buyers, but the mill closures hadn’t had the disastrous effect on the market that some had expected. “Some of those families got their redundancy and stayed on.”
She said people were starting to feel more confident in the town. “I have a young couple moving to Raetihi from Hawke’s Bay. She’s a local, he’s not, but he sold his family home and they’re moving here,” she told OneRoof.
“I have another person who works for the iwi, bringing their family back to the land. They want to buy something with a river, so I have found them a river with a beautiful home.”
The agent highlighted several listings that were within first-home buyer budgets, including a modern property at 45 Snowmass Drive, which has price expectations of mid-$500,000s, and 33 Willow Lane, which has a price of $529,000.
A two-bedroom chalet at 22 Matai Street, in Ohakune, has an asking price of $130,000. Photo / Supplied
A three-bedroom home at 44 Pitt Street, in neighbouring Raetihi, has an asking price of $385,000. Photo / Supplied
For skiers, Tall Poppy’s Campbell has a one-bedroom chalet-style home at 22 Matai Street, in Tūroa Village, priced at $130,000. Unlike some of the Après Ski villages in the area, owners can live full-time in the homes at Tūroa Village, she said.
First home buyers willing to look at nearby Raetihi had a choice of homes for sale currently in the $300,000s bracket, Campbell said, including 56 Ward Street, 44 Pitt Street, and 12 Grey Street.