Southland has become a hotspot for property buyers — and a small town, with fewer than 800 people, has been crowned the "fastest-moving market" in New Zealand.
CoreLogic NZ released its annual "Best of the Best" report, which spotlights the country’s top-performing suburbs and gives insights on what to expect in the coming year.
It says despite a challenging year for New Zealand’s property market, moments of resilience and divergence still emerged, including properties selling in as few as seven days.
This was the case in Wallacetown, a rural settlement about 10 minutes from Invercargill.
According to the report, Wallacetown had the fastest-moving market in 2024, some properties selling in seven days, likely reflecting strong demand and limited supply.
It was followed by Invercargill suburbs Rosedale (eight days), Newfield, Hawthorndale and Heidelberg (nine days).
Grasmere was also included in the top 10 of shortest days on the market in ninth position at 11 days.
Bayleys licensed saleswoman Hannah Mason said the Southland market was much more stable than other regions, which made it one of the best in the country for buyers.
"Particularly for that first-home buyer’s type property — we still find there are still multiple offers. There is quite a bit coming on the market — even though that it’s leading into Christmastime, when historically things go down quite a bit.
"It is pretty positive. We are finding people have more confidence to move on to the next step or get into the property market because of interest rates coming down ... so people are feeling more positive, both for property values and their ability to upsize or get into a home knowing that interest rates seem to only be going down."
She said properties in the Wallacetown area, in particular, were selling well and quickly.
"Often receiving multiple offers in the first week of the marketing campaign. This is probably because there are very few properties for sale in the area — currently only four — it is still reasonably affordable and it’s a lovely community where most sections are at least the desirable quarter-acre in size," Ms Mason said.
Ray White property agent Philip Brough agreed. He predominantly sells lifestyle property and everything he had at Wallacetown recently had sold well.
"We’ve sold several out there recently ... between $900,000 up to over $1.6million. We’ve sold five or six [this year], but they’ve all sold quickly.
"They’ve got a good garage, they’ve got a pub, they’ve got a school, they’ve got a good store," Mr Brough said.
He believed the location was a drawcard as it was close to Invercargill but also on the way to Riverton, making access "really handy".
"There’s a lot of proposed industries that are out north of Invercargill and Wallacetown is sort of in the right direction for people to live and work there without being near to it, but not right among it.
"It’s very quick commuting to the city."
