One is a glitzy tourist resort which welcomes thousands of people every day and has major retail outlets and a few skifields close by.
East Otago is more rural, with small towns dotting the landscape. There are no gondolas or bungy jumps in sight.
But the two areas do have a similar issue or problem — there is little or no rental accommodation.
For months, Queenstown has been struggling to get space for workers to move into and that has led to people sleeping in cars and leaving the district.
People do not appear to be sleeping in their cars in East Otago yet, but there is a lack of rental accommodation in the area.
Real estate agent Alan Cooper said it was nigh on impossible to rent property in Palmerston.
"You can’t get a rental in Palmerston for love or money. You just cannot find a house to rent."
He said investors had gone out of the rental market during the past couple of years and supply had just dried up.
Employment was strong and that was leading to people coming to East Otago and looking for somewhere to stay.
Mr Cooper said the reality was too many older people were living in big houses which no longer suited them.
They needed to move into smaller housing and the big houses would be more suitable for younger families.
Too many people left it too late and stayed in their houses too long.
Fellow agent Sandra Clark said there was a lot of demand for rentals in both Waikouaiti and Palmerston and it had become very difficult to find such properties.
Supply was not matching the demand.
More rental investors were required.
Nationwide, there had been a downturn in people buying houses to rent out and East Otago was no different.
As for the real estate market in East Otago, Mrs Clark said it appeared to have turned somewhat.
Last year had been slow, as people were not buying.
During the past few weeks it appeared more people were coming back into the market and there was more movement.
"There seems to be more people around and there are some first-home buyers back in the market," she said.
She said the market was not going back to the heady times of 2021 when the market was very buoyant, interest rates were low and the prices were good for sellers, just after the Covid 19 lockdowns.
Many sellers were still reluctant to drop their prices.
She said Waikouaiti and Palmerston were still good value for money compared with Dunedin, as there were lower prices and bigger properties.
"Last year was a struggle at times and many houses just did not sell and stayed on the market.
"But it may well be changing and more people want to get into the market."
Mr Cooper said there were more buyers at the moment and sales appeared to be picking up.
Last week, in the Palmerston area 24 properties were on the market and in the Waikouaiti area there were 13.
The market was slow last year and he expected winter to be quiet as usual.
There were more inquiries coming from the North Island as people wanted to head south to make a new start.
