From Waikato to Canterbury: How one woman's town swap unlocked her first home

Saturday, 4 July 2026

Buying her own home was something Rachel Burkhart had always wanted to do, and she had a few things on her side: A willingness to work hard - putting in about 50 hours a week, an interest in personal finance, and the flexibility to move towns.

About 18 months ago, Rachel, 37, moved from the Waikato town of Te Awamutu to Ashburton, mid-Canterbury.

“I’d only visited friends in the South Island before, but I’d always wanted to live there,” she says. “I didn’t have a job lined up. I thought I’d sort it out when I moved down.” As it happened, the weekend she was moving, she was offered a job she’d applied for six months earlier working for beef and lamb company ANZCO.

She moved on the Monday, was offered the job on the Tuesday and started work a few weeks later.

She initially rented a house from a friend “10 minutes up the road”, and this is when she got serious about buying her own place. She’d been listening to lots of New Zealand finance podcasts, including Where’s My Money, Keep the Change, Making Cents and The Happy Saver.

Already a good saver, she signed up with financial coaching company enable.me.

“I was looking for something that would help me get started. I was a good saver, but my money wasn’t working for me.”

The main benefits were going over her budget, allocating money for expected expenses throughout the year, creating a longer term plan and having the accountability of meeting with a financial advisor to keep her focused.

“It’s someone to bounce ideas off and to keep you accountable for your goals and why you’re saving what you’re saving.”

She already had about $100,000 saved, in both KiwiSaver and savings, and needed another $30,000 for a deposit. She pulled that together in two years.

Despite such a significant savings rate, Rachel says she doesn’t feel like she missed out on anything, still managing trips back to Te Awamutu and a long weekend trip to Australia.

She says that not having children means she has a lot of flexibility to move to where housing is cheaper, and to work extra hours to save.

She ended up buying a $700,000 house, a new build with three bedrooms and two bathrooms in central Ashburton, moving in on May 1.

Because she’s a “country person”, she says her longterm goal is a “little lifestyle block out in the country where I can see the mountains, and with not too many neighbours”.

Meanwhile, she’s enjoying being in her own home, and has found a “great“ flatmate to help with the mortgage and other expenses.

She says she feels “a little bit of imposter syndrome” in the new home. “I’m like, How can I afford this brand new house? It’s very clean, tidy, low maintenance …”

Because her finances are so clearly defined by the plan she’s put in place, she’s having no trouble managing the bills. She has money put aside for the following expenses: phone, internet, car, house and contents insurance, gym membership, beauty, medical, dog care and a holiday fund.

She plans to pay down the mortgage as soon as she can.

Would she recommend that others wanting to buy their first home move towns?

“If you’ve got the flexibility to move, why not?” Rachel says. 'Even if it’s just to get on the ladder. You’ve got to start somewhere.” She recommends people ask for help from enable.me.

Enable.me financial adviser and coach Katie Wesney says her company helps first home buyers get a plan in place “with numbers attached and a timeline that means something”.

She says they often have to get realistic about the planned house price: “The bank’s number and the right number aren’t always the same thing.

“We also look at whether buying to live in makes sense, or whether another pathway, such as an investment property, may make sense as a first move.

“The people who get there make a decision and work backwards from it. That usually means staying in a flat longer than they’d like, taking on extra work, and getting deliberate about spending for a defined period.”

Wesney says moving towns, as Burkhart has done, is becoming more common “to make the numbers work”.

“The buyers who get there are often the ones who move from asking why it’s hard, to asking what they need to do.”