What’s life like on New Zealand's cheapest street?

Sunday, 23 March 2025

Houses in Aotearoa’s most expensive Auckland street are 40 times more than houses in the cheapest street in a tiny forest town.

Bay of Plenty’s Murupara is surrounded by thick bush and ranges, an hour from a supermarket or Maccas.

Residents say its remoteness is its magic, finding joy exploring their surroundings rather than shops.

New Zealand’s most expensive street is 40 times as expensive as the country’s cheapest, a survey reveals, but long-time residents in the cheapest street say they are the ones “living in paradise”.

Paratai Drive, named in a real estate survey as one of New Zealand’s most expensive streets, is familiar to most New Zealanders as Auckland’s millionaire row, lined with mega mansions of the rich, the almost famous and the infamous.

Oregon Drive at the other end of the market is not such a household name, but it’s still a winner. The Murupara street is the country’s cheapest with a median house price of $183,000.

Houses in Oregon Drive are 30 times cheaper than Paratai Drive, the country’s fourth most expensive street, and 40 times cheaper than Auckland’s Victoria Ave, which is the country’s most expensive street with a median house price of $6.7 million.

Wilfred (Wilf) Fuller, who lives at 13 Oregon Drive, says he’s the lucky one.

“It’s a palace to me. A happy home in wild bush is a real palace in paradise. I have got everything I love at the doorstep, the bush, hills and rivers to hunt, hike and fish.”

He’s lived on Oregon Drive for 17 years, and grew up in Murupara. Most people on the street are locals, but there has been an influx of investors and first-home buyers from Rotorua or Whakatāne.

Murupara is a small forestry town of around 2000, sandwiched between Kaingaroa Forest and Te Urewera, in the rohē of Ngāti Manawa.

Forty-five minutes from Rotorua, about the same from Whakatāne, there’s no supermarket, just a Four Square at one end of Oregon Drive.

There’s no Maccas or KFC, but takeaway Little Vic’s, also at the end of Oregon Drive, has been serving scoops for 41 years.

Kelvin Davidson, chief economist at Corelogic, reveals analysis of how inexpensive Murupara is compared to other areas of the Bay of Plenty, where median house prices vie with Auckland’s.

“Murupara’s remoteness may well be a factor – often house prices can be tied to employment opportunities, and smaller towns simply don’t have the same range of jobs as bigger centres.”

But 82-year-old Fuller is puzzled when Stuff asks him about Davidson’s remoteness factor theory.

“What do you mean, remoteness? I can put my boots on, throw a bag on my back, and go hiking all day. It’s beautiful out there and you never see the same scene twice. That’s all near, not far away.”

One of his sons still lives in Murupara doing bush work, while the other two are in Auckland and Rotorua. The Oregon Drive house is often full of whānau who come for hāngi and holidays.

“I’ve got 11 grandchildren, and I don’t know how many greats.”

Fuller is retired now, but he spent his working life in the bush and hills, culling deer, pigs, hunting and possuming.

He recorded his trips on toilet paper, including encounters with strange people in the bush - even a murderer - and turned it into a book, Mists of Te Urewera.

These days he shoots only with his camera - a constant companion on his hikes together with his dog, Charlie-Horse.

While Auckland’s richest streets are home to Rich Housewives from reality television, America’s Cup sailing bosses and sultans, Murupara can lay claim to be the original stomping ground of one of Aotearoa’s most well-known prime ministers.

Before her family moved to Morrinsville, Jacinda Ardern grew up in a humble house on Kowhai St, which crosses with Oregon Drive.

During a trip to her home town in 2021 she visited her childhood home - now a house for off-duty police and emergency staff to sleep in.

It looks much like the houses on Oregon Drive, which doesn’t surprise Ray White Rotorua real estate agent Phill Rivers, who said a lot of Murupara houses are similar, with native timber and fireplaces.

“There really is no particular reason why Oregon Drive came out as the cheapest over other streets in the village, although it is the longest street. It’s just your typical rural street.”

He has noticed an increase in interest from newcomers spotting opportunity in Murupara.

“Houses in Murupara are generally well sought after by not only first-home buyers but also investors due to the return on investment for investors and the ability of first-home buyers to get the deposit together.

“I have also noted that some of the interest is from locals who are returning to the area after having grown up there and wanting to return home.”

While the town has similar issues as other small rural towns, such as gangs and unemployment, he says there is a strong community and plenty to do.

Murupara may be isolated, but it’s attracting tourists and visitors keen to experience a slice of life in the real Kiwi bush.

Murupara-based tourism venture Kohutapu Lodge & Tribal Tours was a finalist in three Tourism Industry Aotearoa New Zealand awards in 2022, and won two of them.

The tourists even visit local schools, meeting the children and teachers who perform haka and waiata.

24 March 2025 2.30pm

For clarification, Stuff has updated the description of the house used for off-duty police and emergency staff to sleep in.