Two years on: First-home buyers gamble on quake-damaged bargains

PHOTO: BRADEN FASTIER/STUFF – BEFORE: Barney Muir’s house was red-stickered after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake in 2016.

Young people in Kaikōura are snapping up quake-damaged houses at bargain prices, and landing first homes beyond anything they had imagined.

Two years on from the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, many houses still need repairs, tradies are stretched thin and seasonal tourism workers are living in caravans and buses due to a housing shortage.

But Kaikōura man Johnny Clark and other first-home buyers have found opportunity amid the upheaval, in the form of cheap property and motivated sellers.

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