- Te Anau offers a more affordable and less crowded alternative to Queenstown, with a strong community and scenic landscape.
- Property prices in Te Anau are significantly lower, attracting buyers from Southland and beyond.
- The town’s growing popularity is supported by new subdivisions and a range of properties, from $500,000 cribs to multimillion-dollar homes.
Buyers wanting to avoid the tourist crush and mega prices of Queenstown could do worse than look in Te Anau for their next house purchase.
Start your property search
Agents there say the gateway town to Milford Sound and Fiordland is sleepier than its bigger brother, two or so hours’ drive away in New Zealand’s deep south, but that it has just as much to offer.
Nick Robertson, from PGG Wrightson, says Queenstown and nearby Wanaka are expensive, crowded, and clogged with traffic, whereas Te Anau is “normal” with a great community, climate and landscape.
Tourists who arrive from Queenstown on their way to Milford Sound are sometimes surprised at how nice the town is, he says.
“They go, ‘Hang on a minute, there’s quite a bit here and there’s a nice community, there are nice shops, there’s everything you need here, including quite a lot of accommodation, some good hotels and motels, and lots of Airbnbs’.”
Agents say tourists passing through the town are won over by what they see and many frequently return to buy. Photo / Getty Images
The town has a lot to offer tourists and residents with walking tracks on its doorstep and glow worms on the edge of the lake, he says.
Robertson, who is in his 50s, says his parents’ generation aspired to buy holiday homes in places like Queenstown, Alexandra and Wanaka, but for his generation and below, those areas are unaffordable.
“It’s just ridiculous, so they are looking very seriously at Te Anau because it’s nice and close to where they live and it’s much more affordable,” he tells OneRoof.
“You can buy a section here for $250,000. Go to Wanaka or Hawea, and you can’t get a 400sqm section for less than $600,000 to $700,000.”
Discover more:
- Massive South Island stations aim for $140m
- Fashion power couple selling their art villa
- Buyers hammered on costs told not to skimp on insurance
Having said that, Robertson has noticed a lot of wealth in Te Anau. The dairy industry is humming, and farmers, who have had their best payout in years, are spending, he says.
“It’s not just the farm owners, it’s the farm workers, like the managers and that, and also the industries that are affiliated with the dairy industry, like the guys selling the tractors and selling the fencing gear and selling parts for the actual milking gear.”
That spending is flowing into the property market. About a third of the houses in Te Anau are holiday homes, a third are residents’ main home, and the rest are rentals or Airbnbs.
“There’s a lot of money in Gore and Invercargill,” Robertson says.
“People don’t realise that. Gore used to have the most wealth per head of population in New Zealand for a long time. We have clients coming here to buy a holiday home and they don’t go to the bank, they just write a cheque. It’s old, established money – six or seven generations of farming – and it’s starting to be spread around a bit through succession.”
PGG Wrightson agent Nick Robertson has a five-bedroom brick home at 24 Oraka Street, in Te Anau, for sale for $1.29m. Photo / Supplied
Some Aucklanders have bought there to live permanently and work from home, and Robertson is keen to note that one of his clients has a job in London but works from Te Anau. Sometimes Australians come for ski holidays in Queenstown or Wanaka and visit Te Anau. “You end up seeing them back here and they start looking at properties because they think it’s pretty amazing.”
Robertson has various properties up for grabs in the lakeside town, including a five-bedroom brick home at 24 Oraka Street, priced at $1.29 million and boasting views of the lake and the Fiordland mountains; and a 7831sqm ready-to-develop section at 25 Te Anau Mossburn Highway, priced at $880,000.
Ray White Te Anau principal Stephanie Jones says that in the first quarter of the year, there was an influx of buyers, including people from the Central Lakes area who realised Te Anau offered the same lifestyle but cheaper.
Robertson is also selling a 7831sqm section at 25 Te Anau Mossburn Highway for $880,000. Photo / Supplied
“They could have the lake and the mountains and all the things that go with that, but the price tags are a little bit more family-friendly.”
The new subdivisions being developed are giving buyers options, she says, highlighting the sections she has listed at the Luxmore Developments, where prices range from $220,000 to $275,000.
Jones says she started in real estate 10 years ago and has yet to experience a slow period. “It’s just been quite constant. You’ve watched construction happen and subdivisions fill up. What used to be bare land and bare sections sitting around for a long time are now fully built out.”
Few resales mean people are staying put, and the influx of out-of-town buyers has helped Te Anau grow to a point where it can sustain itself.
“People are seeing it a bit more as a destination as opposed to a place on your way to Milford Sound. People are sticking around to experience what we’ve got to offer, which is pretty cool.”
This Te Anau stunner, built by Te Anau Homes Ltd, was recently recognised in the Master Builders House of the Year awards. Photo / Douglas Thorne
A four-bedroom trophy home at 152 William Stephen Road is listed with Ray White agent Shannelle Scott and is seeking buyer enquiry over $3m. Photo / Supplied
The range of properties on offer, from entry-level cribs priced at $500,000 to brand new homes worth several million dollars, has helped grow the market.
Last year, a Te Anau home was recognised at the House of the Year awards, and Jones says one of her agents, Shannelle Scott, is looking for $3m-plus for a four-bedroom lakeside home at 152 William Stephen Road.
Lloyd Anderson, business owner of Harcourts Te Anau and Gore, lives in Te Anau and says he loves that it’s flat and easy to get around on the e-bike, describing the town as the backwater of Queenstown and “a sleepy little place”.
He thinks around 80% of buyers come from Southland, some of whom move there to retire.
He agrees some who move there are avoiding Queenstown and the constant tourism, while holiday-makers like to do the nearby walking tracks, such as The Kepler and the Milford track.
Harcourts agent Lloyd Anderson is selling a 1411sqm section at 31 South Arm Drive for $495,000. Photo / Supplied
Anderson recently sold this lifestyle property on Te Anau Milford Road for $2.3m. Photo / Supplied
Anderson has sections for sale, including one on South Arm Drive for $495,000, which he says has long boundaries and “massive” lake and mountain views.
For some listings, buyers have to be quick; Anderson says he recently listed a 1200sqm lakefront section for $1.1m, which sold for cash by the end of the weekend. Another recent sale was a three-bedroom lifestyle property on Te Anau Milford Road, which fetched $2.3m.
- Click here to find more properties for sale in Te Anau
