Cheap land for sale in NZ: How to find affordable sections

The easiest way to find cheap land for sale in NZ is to search on Trade Me Property. Here’s how:

• Visit Trade Me Property.

• Change property type to either lifestyle bare land or section. 

• Edit location and price and add keywords if necessary. 

Once the results appear change the ‘sort’ option to ‘lowest price first’. You can then also use the ‘refine’ function to also filter by land area by, for example, you could only look at sections under 500 sqm in size. 

The latest comprehensive data for land prices throughout Aotearoa comes from a 2021 report by the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission. It looked at the average land value per sqm in major urban centres:

• Auckland: $1,762/sqm

• Tauranga: $1,504/sqm

• Wellington: $913/sqm

• Queenstown: $880/sqm

• Hamilton: $648/sqm

• Christchurch: $444/sqm

Based on these figures, Auckland and Tauranga have the most expensive land per sqm, while Hamilton and Christchurch have the cheapest. Figures for land in Queenstown are conspicuously cheap, and have increased in price considerably since this report is published (to over $1,000 per sqm). 

Land prices aren’t as closely tracked and reported on as property prices, so it can be tricky to know where to find cheap land, or what a fair price is for any given section. Here are a few tips to get you started:

• House prices generally reflect land prices. Areas with lower house prices usually have cheaper land, and areas with higher house prices generally have more expensive land (one exception to this rule is areas with large concentrations of apartments like Auckland CBD. Here land is extremely expensive but properties tend to be more affordable because they’re mainly apartments). 

• The further from a town city you are, the cheaper the land. Land in established areas close to the centre of cities and towns tends to be more expensive because it's in limited supply. Land further out on city and town fringes is usually cheaper. 

• Smaller sections are usually cheaper. All things equal, larger sections command higher price points than smaller ones. If you’re building on a budget one of the easiest ways to cut costs is to simply choose a small section. 

• Flat sections might cost more. As a rule of thumb, flat sections tend to cost more than sloping or uneven sections. That’s because flat sections require less earthwork to prepare them for building (work that can be quite time consuming and expensive). While buying a sloping or uneven section may cost less up front, you’ll most likely pay more for your build. 

As well as size and contour, lots of other things affect the value of land. This might include views, location, any resource consents already issues, potential for subdivision, and work already done to prepare the land for building.