Here are New Zealand's cheapest houses

Got $55,000?

In Auckland, it might not be enough to serve even as the deposit for your first home.

But in other parts of the country, it could buy you a whole house (with a few strings attached).

Trade Me has revealed the top 10 cheapest properties currently listed on its website.

The list does not include houses that might sell yet cheaper but are for sale by negotiation or will be sold at auction.

Top of the list were three leasehold properties, one in Greymouth, one in Papanui and one in Lake Ellesmere, which comes with its own jetty.

These were all listed for $55,000.

"Leasehold" means that you have to pay rent for the ground the house stands on. In Greymouth, that's $2420 a year fixed until 2024.

The ad for this $55,000 leasehold house in Papanui says the owner is realistic.

The cheapest in Auckland were three homes on one leasehold section, selling for $95,000. There, the kicker is the ground rent of $68,000 a year fixed until 2035.

Economist Brad Olsen, of Infometrics, said a leasehold house would look artificially lower than the true cost of owning and maintaining the property. "You'll still have to pay rental figure for use of the land, and land costs continue to get more expensive."

Second-cheapest was a house and its own 506 sq m section in Patea. This property is listed for $85,000.

Olsen said West Coast or Taumarunui properties tended to be cheaper but the areas had "mixed to poor" economies and would be likely to have older and more rundown housing.

"The latest Infometrics Quarterly Economic Monitor shows that the West Coast economy was the only regional economy to decline over the last 12 months - a 1.4 per cent per year reduction in economic activity according to our provisional estimates. Taumarunui is similar, with Infometrics estimates showing a 0.8 per cent reduction in economic activity over the 12 months to March 2018 - for smaller areas we don't have the same ability for more current economic activity estimates."

All up, Trade Me had 17 properties for sale with listed prices below $125,000.

This house is listed for $85,000 in Patea.

Bindi Norwell, chief executive of the Real Estate Institute, said buyers should be cautious.

"If the price of a property looks too good to be true, then it's probably that low for a reason. It's imperative that you do your research before buying a property so that you can understand whether you're actually getting a bargain or whether you're going to end up spending significant amounts of money on the property."

She said a property that looked to be a bargain might need a lot of money spent on fixing problems such as weathertnightness.

"Or it could be that the foundations are cracking, and the property needs to be re-piled."'

You could snap up this house for $55,000 in Greymouth.

Sometimes significant renovations were needed that could add tens of thousands of dollars – or more – to the cost of a house. "There are plenty of examples of where an owner has lived in the property for 60 years and everything is still original from the wallpaper to the bathrooms and everything in between."

Other times it might be in a less desirable or accessible spot. Sometimes it could be a genuinely good price if it was being sold by the estate of someone who had died or if the owners had divorced and wanted to move on quickly.

The list

1. Leasehold house in Greymouth - $55,000

2. Leasehold in Papanui - $55,000

3. For Duck shooters in Lake Ellesmere - $55,000

4. Patea house with a big section - $85,000

5. Leasehold property in St Johns Auckland - $95,000

6. Doer upper in Buller - $95,000

7. Taupo Road in Taumarunui - $99,000

8. Completion required in Taumaranui - $99,000

9. High St in Greymouth - $99,000

10. Very old school in Buller - $100,000

11. Investment in Murupara? - $109,000