If you are trying to buy your first home in New Zealand right now, you have probably been offered two paths: stretch for an existing house, or spend a year building something small on a rear section. Almost nobody mentions the third path, even though New Zealand has been doing it for a hundred years: buy a section, and have a solid, renovated, guaranteed home delivered onto it in months. This guide explains that path with real numbers.
1. What first home buyers are actually paying in 2026
The Cotality First Home Buyer Report, published with Westpac in May 2026, gives the clearest picture of the market:[1]
Two details in that data matter more than the headline.
First: first home buyers are not buying at the bottom of the market. The median first home buyer paid $720,000 while the lower quartile across all buyers was $600,000. Most first home buyers enter well above the cheapest stock, because the cheapest stock is often units, cross-leases and homes with problems.[2]
Second: three quarters of them bought standalone houses. Kiwis still want a house on a section. The market keeps telling first home buyers to settle for a townhouse. First home buyers keep not doing that.
2. The choice you are usually given, and what is missing from it
Path one: buy existing
You compete at auction for renovated homes, or you buy a do-up and discover what deferred maintenance costs. What you get for the median $720,000 varies wildly by region, and in the main centres it is often a unit or a house that needs money spent immediately.
Path two: build new
New construction runs roughly $2,500 to $4,500 plus per square metre before you buy the land, and a full new-build-plus-land project commonly works out around 18 percent more expensive than the median existing home in the same region.[3] Add 8 to 12 or more months of build time, paying rent and a construction loan at the same time.
The missing path: relocate
Buy a section where you can afford one. Have a solid existing home, independently inspected, moved onto it, placed on new engineered foundations, fully renovated with new insulation, kitchen, bathroom and heat pump, consented, and handed over with a Code Compliance Certificate and a Halo 10-Year Residential Guarantee. In 3 to 4 months, for a fixed price agreed before you commit.
You end up with the thing 75 percent of first home buyers actually want: a standalone house on a full freehold section. With character new builds cannot copy: native timber framing, real weatherboards, high ceilings, the bones of a home built to last a century.
3. How a relocated home package works
Talk to us about budget and location
First conversation covers where you want to live, what you can spend, and whether you already have land. We tell you honestly what is achievable at your number.
Find the section, find the house
We help assess sections before you buy: access for the transporter, ground conditions, services at the boundary. Then we present houses currently available for relocation, each with an independent third-party building inspection report.
Fixed price, 3D renders, consent
You get architect 3D renders of the finished home on your section, and one fixed price covering everything: house, transport, foundations, services, renovation, decks, consent and CCC. Your lawyer reviews it like any other contract.
Relocation and renovation
The house moves at night with a licensed, insured relocator. Foundations are ready when it arrives. Renovation runs to the agreed scope: insulation, double glazing, heat pump, kitchen, bathroom, paint, flooring.
CCC and keys
Code Compliance Certificate issued, Halo 10-Year Residential Guarantee registered, keys handed over. Typical total: 3 to 4 months from acceptance.
4. The numbers, region by region
Recycled Homes land and house packages start from $750,000. House-only packages, for buyers who already have land or family land, start from $500,000. Compare that with what first home buyers are paying for existing homes by region:[1]
| Region | Median FHB price paid | What that buys vs a package |
|---|---|---|
| Auckland | $900,000 | Often a unit or townhouse. A package at $750,000+ needs cheaper fringe or rural-edge land, and delivers a standalone home |
| Waikato | $695,000 | Package from $750,000 competes directly with existing standalone homes, but renovated and guaranteed |
| Bay of Plenty | $733,000 | Similar money to the median, for a renovated character home on land you chose |
| Manawatu-Whanganui | $524,000 | House-only package on family land, or package on affordable sections; strong value case |
| Canterbury | $655,000 | Affordable sections keep the package price competitive against existing homes |
| Southland | $489,000 | Best suited to house-only packages on land you already have access to |
The pattern is simple: the cheaper the land, the harder a package is to beat. In regions where sections run $200,000 to $350,000, a $750,000 package delivers a fully renovated standalone home that competes with or beats the median existing purchase, with no deferred maintenance and a 10-year guarantee. In Auckland, the package makes most sense on fringe and rural-edge land, or where family land is available.
A first home that is a real house on a real section, with new insulation, new kitchen, new bathroom and a 10-year guarantee, in the same money as the median first home purchase.
And nothing on the maintenance list for years.
5. KiwiSaver, deposits and bank lending
- KiwiSaver first-home withdrawal works with a relocated home purchase, subject to the usual eligibility rules. Timing matters because funds release at settlement; your adviser will sequence it.
- Bank lending on relocated homes requires more paperwork than a standard purchase: fixed-price contract, QS report, builder credentials, consent pathway, transit and construction insurance. Our packages include all of it, because a package a bank will not lend on is not a package.
- Deposit requirements follow the LVR rules and your bank's construction lending policy. Most of our first home clients work through a mortgage adviser, and we speak with advisers directly whenever that helps.
Worth knowing: if your parents own land, a house-only package from $500,000 onto a subdivided corner or an existing spare title is one of the most affordable routes to a standalone first home in New Zealand. It also pairs with the new granny flat rules if the parents want to add a smaller dwelling later. See our granny flat guide.
6. The honest trade-offs
We would rather you know these up front:
- You need land with access. A house arrives on a truck. Steep, tight or heavily built-out sections can rule the option out. We assess this before you buy a section, not after.
- The house is not new. It is a renovated character home with new services on new foundations. Some buyers specifically want brand-new everything. That is what new builds are for.
- Choice is a stream, not a shop. Good relocatable houses become available week by week. If you have a very specific house in mind, you may wait for the right one to appear.
- Lending takes more paperwork. Solved with documentation, but it is a step a standard purchase does not have.
What you get in exchange: a standalone home on a full section, character that new builds cannot offer, a 20 to 40 percent saving against building the same floor area new, a 3 to 4 month timeline, and a 10-year guarantee equal to a new build's.
Tell us your budget. We will tell you what is real.
First conversation is free and honest. If a relocated home package does not suit your situation or your region, we will say so and point you somewhere useful. If it does, we will show you exactly what your money gets.
Start the conversation7. Questions people ask us
Median $720,000 in early 2026 (Cotality / Westpac), ranging from $407,500 on the West Coast to $900,000 in Auckland. More than 75 percent bought standalone houses.
Land and house packages from $750,000. House-only packages from $500,000 if you already have land. Fixed price agreed before you commit, everything included.
Yes, subject to standard first-home withdrawal eligibility. Funds release at settlement, so sequencing matters. Work with a mortgage adviser; we are happy to talk to them directly.
Yes, with the documentation our packages include: fixed-price contract, QS report, builder credentials, consent pathway and insurance for transit and construction.
Commonly 20 to 40 percent cheaper for equivalent floor area, and 3 to 4 months instead of 8 to 12 plus. The structure already exists; you pay to move and renovate it, not to build it.
The houses we select were built with heavier framing and real timber joinery, then get new insulation, double glazing, heating, kitchen and bathroom in the renovation. Every house is independently inspected before purchase, and the finished home carries a Halo 10-Year Residential Guarantee, the same cover as a new build.
A house-only package from $500,000 onto family land is one of the most affordable routes to a standalone first home in NZ. Subdivision or a second dwelling on the existing title are both workable routes, subject to council rules. We help with the feasibility before anyone spends money.
Nationwide. We work with licensed haulage companies moving houses throughout New Zealand.