How We Financed Buying Our Off-Grid Block: From Recession to 75 Acres of Native Bush

It is easy to look at the dream of a simple life on the land and feel the cold reality of a bank balance acting like a brick wall. The big numbers can be intimidating, but there is more than one path to getting your bit of dirt. We didn’t get here through a lottery win; we managed it with a bit of grit, a lot of patience, and some creative, step-by-step thinking. This is exactly how we financed buying our Okiwi Bay block, from navigating a recession in Queenstown to securing our slice of paradise.

When Your Job Evaporates, Change Your Strategy

In 2009, my job with a design firm evaporated and work dried up for Ryan’s welding business as the Global Financial Crisis loomed and recession hit New Zealand. We put our belongings into storage and spent a year in the UK, living cheaply with family and friends (in a caravan most of the time) and working hard. We returned with a nest egg of a few tens of thousands. We then made a critical decision: instead of buying in Queenstown where interest-only payments would consume an entire salary, we rented cheaply and saved the difference. Renting isn’t always throwing money away; for us, it was a strategic way to build capital.

Seizing the Opportunity in the Recession

The secret to buying cheap land is often finding the block that everyone else deems ‘too hard.’ In 2011, while Queenstown was still deep in recession, an opportunity for a third-of-an-acre section came up via word of mouth. We offered $95,000 for land that had previously seen offers over $200,000. It was a matter of being in the right place at the right time – but also being ready for it! We used our savings for the deposit, received a little help from my parents, and the bank covered the rest, lending only 50% of the bare land’s value. We officially owned the dirt for our first house build – our stepping stone.

Trading Comfort for Equity: Our Endurance Test to Create Value

This first stage required creativity and a high tolerance for basic living. We rented a cheap house nearby while building a future-proofed garage with a workshop and toilet. Once built, we had the property revalued. The value jumped significantly to $180k, allowing us to increase our mortgage based on the new, improved value of the land and building. We then moved into the garage – the day after our wedding! The garage door was a tarpaulin and we only had concrete floors. We installed a basic kit-set kitchenette and lived there just short of a year. It cut our living costs to the bone and provided breathing room to focus on the main house.

‘Upskilling’ Your Way to a Home: How Learning the Trade Saved Thousands

Living in the garage allowed us to build our main house with a small mortgage based on my single income. Ryan worked as a ‘hammer hand’ with a licensed builder to both ‘upskill’ and drastically cut our labour costs. We kept the house design simple, built our own concrete kitchen bench and I was on the floor assembling cabinets at eight months pregnant. We moved into our 104-square-metre house three days before our daughter arrived. We rented the now vacant, carpeted garage as a one-bedroom studio to a friend, providing steady extra income to help finish the house.

The Moment Our Sweat Equity Became Our ‘Ticket’ Out

Our strategy was always to build value, sell, and upgrade our life. In late 2013, we listed the house privately on Trade Me (a huge New Zealand online market place), and held our own ‘open-home’ viewing days, saving thousands in agent fees. After a few months, we accepted an offer of $425,000, which allowed us to pay off the mortgage and walk away with a few hundred thousand in the bank. This lump sum was our ticket to buying our new ‘off-grid’ land. We bought our current 30-hectare (75-acre) bush block in Marlborough Sounds, NZ for $135,000, bought a second-hand caravan as our initial base, and a reliable 4WD workhorse outright. And the balance would help fund the rest to come… 

Cutting Through the Chaos: Avoid the Hesitations Stalling your Dream…

• Renting can be a strategic tool. By choosing to rent cheaply in an expensive market, we protected our savings and waited for the right moment to strike.
• Explore alternative lending realities. Be prepared for different deposit requirements for raw land and seek out opportunities that traditional lenders and buyers overlook.
• Embrace sweat equity. Trading time and effort for lower build costs is an effective way to finance your life without borrowing more money.
• Live small to dream big. Don’t be afraid to live in ‘in-between’ spaces (like a caravan or garage with a tarp door) as a temporary sacrifice for permanent freedom.
• Create value with every step. View every project as a stepping stone. By handling the finish work and the sale ourselves, the value we added to the land stayed in our pockets.
• Prioritise function over appearance. Invest resources into the tools that do the work (a reliable 4WD and a simple caravan) rather than expensive status symbols.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor. The information shared in this post is for educational and inspirational purposes only and does not constitute professional financial advice. These are simply the personal steps we took to achieve our goals; please consult with a qualified professional before making any significant financial or property investment decisions.