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10 New Zealand Towns Where Nobody Is Buying — Even After 5 Price Cuts

KIWI LIVING

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10 New Zealand towns where houses just won't sell — even after five price cuts. From forestry towns hit by mill closures to earthquake-prone Murchison and flood-damaged Wairoa, these are the property markets where sellers keep dropping the price and buyers still don't show up.

In this video, we break down why homes in these small NZ towns are sitting unsold for months or years, what caused each local economy to decline, and whether any of these places have a real shot at recovery. If you're into New Zealand real estate, regional property trends, or just curious about the towns Kiwis are leaving behind, this one's for you.

Towns covered in this video:
🏘️ Murupara, Bay of Plenty — the forestry town hit hardest by mill closures
🏘️ Kawerau, Bay of Plenty — built around one factory, struggling as it shrinks
🏘️ Ohakune, Manawatū-Whanganui — a ski town squeezed by shorter seasons
🏘️ Taumarunui, Manawatū-Whanganui — a railway town left behind by rail decline
🏘️ Ruatoria, Gisborne — remote, cyclone-hit, and hard to sell
🏘️ Reefton, West Coast — historic gold rush town with almost no buyer demand
🏘️ Ohai, Southland — a coal town most New Zealanders have never heard of
🏘️ Murchison, Tasman — earthquake risk keeping buyers and insurers away
🏘️ Wairoa, Hawke's Bay — still recovering from Cyclone Gabrielle flood damage
🏘️ Tokoroa, Waikato — a timber town facing repeated price drops

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:42 Murupara, Bay of Plenty – The forestry town time forgot
01:47 Kawerau, Bay of Plenty – Built by one factory, dying with it
02:55 Ohakune, Manawatū-Whanganui – The ski town nobody skis to anymore
03:54 Taumarunui, Manawatū-Whanganui – The railway town bypassed by history
05:00 Ruatoria, Gisborne – Remote, rural, and virtually unsellable
06:06 Reefton, West Coast – The town electricity forgot to modernise
07:11 Ohai, Southland – A coal town with almost nobody left
08:11 Murchison, Tasman – Earthquake country nobody wants to bet on
09:21 Wairoa, Hawke's Bay – Flood-hit and still recovering
10:15 Tokoroa, Waikato – The town the mill left behind

Whether you're tracking the New Zealand housing market, researching where property values are falling, or just fascinated by small-town decline stories, this countdown covers the real numbers, real history, and real reasons buyers are staying away. Watch till the end and let us know in the comments which town you think has the best chance of bouncing back — and which one you think will still be cutting prices five years from now.

If you enjoyed this deep dive into New Zealand's toughest property markets, subscribe to Kiwi Living for more videos on NZ real estate trends, regional towns, and the stories behind the housing market's biggest ups and downs.

#NewZealand #NZRealEstate #KiwiLiving #NZHousingMarket #SmallTownNZ

18 Comments

@BruceGibbins-k4i 3 weeks ago (edited)

I'm feeling a little sentimental over the towns here. I once traveled through them.
Sometimes stopping to buy a sandwich lunch, coffee and a smoke.
A walk along main street for a look-see. Back to the car and onto the next call.

@bassbrother81 5 days ago

Covenants and watertake can often put people off also, id love to see you do a video on that, great video keep up the good content ❤

@thebeerhunter7307 3 weeks ago

Reefton is booming, has the gold mine, dairy industry doing well, has tourism such as river rafting, trout fishing, hunting, so some of your info about Reefton I think you have read, never actually stepped foot in the town

@tiffanylothian6871 3 weeks ago

i live in taumarunui. new building is happening all over. run down whare are sitting for months but houses are selling.

@robertmiller2173 3 weeks ago

Reefton might be on the way back….mining, gold, the West Coast or Wet Coast as we call it in Christchurch!

@Providence1243 3 weeks ago

I'd move to Reefton out of all the places listed here, but would move to Westport in a heart beat if I returned from Aussie back to NZ.

@intravena 3 weeks ago

Rents in Kawerau more than tripled under Jacinda

@Bobt98 3 weeks ago

Don’t know why Kawerau is in this houses are selling ☹️👎

@Boilerhouse-s6p 2 days ago

It's an artificial bubble push by miniplating supply and demand still needs to fall 50%. Blue collar jobs are no where near as good as they used to be I earned more 20 years ago for an easier less complex job then today, the old jobs had really good contracts and bonus

@wallymburn9963 3 weeks ago

Well Kawerau is booming of late, or so I read, and prices are growing faster than the rest of the country?
Conflicting information?

@robinmeiklejohn-of6qv 3 weeks ago

New mining in Reefton has started

@poita_m7142 12 days ago

What's the point, most of these places have NO or little jobs. And the lower socio-economic climate doesn't fit most people.

@DENBO-p9j 2 weeks ago

What you don't mention is violent crime, Tokoroa is lovely but, it's alao a dangerous place. As are muripara and Wairoa, there is a strong gang presence these places are not great to take your family. Gun laws in New Zealand are crazy, If someone or someones come to take your stuff, you just have to hand it over.. Why aren't these things mentioned?

@Boilerhouse-s6p 2 days ago

The problem is both labour and national are pushing mass immigration on us, pushing demand above supply for housing health infrastructure it's market miniplation and a pyramid scheme that feeds the housing ponzi foiren banks are pulling billions out of the country on it, if you have 1% more demand then supply the prices don't go up by 1% they go up until 1% of people give up. We don't have a true democracy anymore the thing that made us so successful was the peoples belief in our system that they have a voice now we just get gaslit our politicians are guilty of high treason we have over 1.3million people in NZ that were not born in NZ about 28% of the entire population that to me is mass immigration and none of our politicians want to have a real talk about it, it's pushing our imports well above our exports and our businesses are being sold off profits going overseas to feed the cycle. And pushing costs up from the bottom by miniplating supply and demand with mass immigration has pushed wages up not enough to counter the rising living costs but enough to stop our businesses being able to be competitive internationally

@allanconnor1013 13 days ago

Considering it's now 2026 Kiwi houses were/are way overpriced for what you get. Cold, draughty, leaky and way behind modern housing standards. A friend bought a nearly new beautiful home for $1,000,000 and it has no heating!

@gustown 3 weeks ago (edited)

Who would want to buy in an unsteady market the country is broke crime is to far gone it's unfixable no job's the main industry is immigration major industries have shut down and leaving the country nobody is coming to save small towns or even the cities. Say what you like it's the truth...
The Government and opposition parties can only think of taxing the bugger out of everything interms of saving their own arses NZ cat rely on tourism as a major industry and certainly can't tax it's way to prosperity society is going to clash at some point!! Also the pronunciation of Maori names town's in this clip is disgraceful toon