The West Coast's bucking the trend when it comes to how much of a household's income is going towards the mortgage.
Eliza Hood and her family moved to Greymouth from Gisborne nearly two years ago and haven't looked back.
Not only did her and her husband buy the local pharmacy, they bought a house too.
"We got more for our money and having bought a business as well, and just being able to afford both. We also have three kids so being able to afford day-care and travel costs, it's a smaller town so it takes us less to get around," she said.
And as mortgage rates go through the roof making housing unaffordable across much of New Zealand, the West Coast is bucking the trend.
"On the West Coast average house prices are significantly lower than the rest of the country so under $400,000, so to service a mortgage nationally it's over 50 per cent of your income on average," Development West Coast chief executive Heath Milne said.
While figures from Infometrics show for West Coasters it's almost half that.
On average people there are spending 27% of their salary on the mortgage.
"We do have also higher average salaries than the rest of the country so very affordable place to live," Milne said.
And job growth in the region over the past year has surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
"We are seeing an influx of skilled people wanting to come into the coast which is great because we really need those highly skilled people to drive the economy."
So we asked locals what's so great about living on the coast?
"It was great to rear the children. They could play on the road, they could bike to school at the age of six," one said.
"It rains a bit but it's a good place to live," another remarked.
But throughout the region, they're still grappling with some of the same issues as other centres.
"Housing while it's cheaper it is relatively difficult to get but there are some developments in all districts now which are hoping to meet that demand," Milne said.
SHARE ME