In this hotter than hot housing market, moving to live on a boat seems like an attractive alternative.
Wellington's Seaview Marina - for example - is facing such high demand that it is expanding and has had to start a wait list.
Cathy O'Grady and her family made the move after a couple of health scares - they thought why wait until retirement to live a different life and enjoy more freedom?
At first, the family lived on a smaller boat, to see if they enjoyed life on the water. Pretty quickly they had sold their house to buy a yacht.
"I think this is us for good," O'Grady tells Jesse Mulligan.
Seaview Marina in Wellington. Photo: Tony Kelly.
O'Grady lives on the 42 ft yacht with her two kids aged 5 and 12, and her husband.
She says the only downside to living on a boat is living in a smaller space.
"You have to change your mind of thinking and how it all works, you can't buy a vase, you don't have the space for it. You can't exactly go to the supermarket and buy a big lot of shopping because you might not have the space on your boat, especially if your fridge and freezer are smaller than what you're used to in a house."
If the family wants to go and have dinner on an island, they can - O'Grady loves that about her life.
"There's nothing stopping us from doing it."
She's not surprised that lots of people are considering making the move to a boat, but says the reality might not be for everyone.
"I would be surprised if a lot of them stick around, especially if they stay through a winter.
"That's some of the hard stuff, especially when you have a bitterly cold southerly and it's pouring down with rain, you've got to walk down the long pier to get to the gate, to get to your car."
For those that do stick around, O'Grady says there's a great community to be involved in.
"In lockdown we had what we called pier parties where everyone kept their 1.5 metres apart but we were drinking and having music playing and just discussing the day because there's nothing else we could do."
People might be drawn to the life to cut costs - other than the boat itself, O'Grady only pays for the marina fee, power bill and live aboard fee. She warns it shouldn't be the only reason to make the move.
"Give it a go but don't be too afraid to pull the pin, especially if it's not for you.
"Husband's out there, do not push your wives too hard because you may end up losing them especially if they're not the same as you, you might scare the hell out of them, and we don't want that."
But, she says, "The more the merrier".
