Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Gold Rush: Who's Cashing In on Queenstown? An RNZ series examining the money flowing into Queenstown - and who's missing out.
The number of first-home buyers in Queenstown has climbed to an 18-year high, making up 19 percent of all the district's property purchases in 2025.
That is despite soaring property prices and thousands of people on waitlists for affordable housing schemes - with one buyer facing a $600,000 average increase in house prices since he first started looking.
The figures, from property analytics firm Cotality, follow a year in which the district hit a record asking price of $1.6 million, up nearly 20 percent on the previous year.
Christian Belmont, who has lived in Queenstown for more than a decade, said it was far from easy to buy a house in what was now the most expensive district in New Zealand.
"I think I have like 60 to 80 percent of all the real estate agents' phone numbers on my phone, because I've been to dozens and dozens and dozens of open homes and talked with every single real estate agent that I possibly could," he said.
He a
Continue Reading on RNZ
This preview shows approximately 15% of the article. Read the full story on the publisher's website to support quality journalism.