Ida Johnson recently put her three-bedroom home in Washdyke, Timaru on the market.
As well as the internal access garage, the open plan kitchen and dining area and the sunny living area, the marketing material for the property mentions another desirable amenity... the established vegetable garden.
Ida admits she's not growing quite as much as usual right now, given she's getting ready to move out, but the garden is still prolifically pumping out potatoes, yams, celery, parsley and more.
The vege garden at Ida Johnson's Timaru house.
"Actually the vege patch is looking really wonderful right now," she says. "I don't know if it's to do with all the rain we have had. But I think hopefully it will help attract a buyer."
Julian Blanchard, the real estate agent with Harcourts Timaru who's selling Ida's home, is more than hopeful. He's almost certain the vege garden will be a big draw.
"We have definitely seen an increase in interest in having an edible garden over the last few years, especially from first home buyers," he says.
"We certainly use words like 'established fruit trees' and 'productive vege patch' more in our listings now than we did five years ago."
There are a few factors driving this increase in enthusiasm, Julian says.
There's more interest in where food comes from, for a start, and knowing when what you are eating was picked and whether it has been sprayed with anything. "And that's not just something you see in real estate, but all across society. People are more aware of what they are putting in to their bodies."
Kids are also increasingly likely to be involved in a school garden and keen to have one at home. "I think those Little Garden giveaways from New World might have something to do with it."
But mainly, he says, the upsurge in interest in buying a house with a vege patch is because home buyers, especially first home buyers, want to have a certain kind of life.
Over the past decade Timaru, where the median house price is still in the mid $300,000s, has seen an influx of would-be buyers who have been priced out of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. And it's these buyers who are especially keen to find a property with space for a vege patch, or even better one that's already established, Julian says.
With a house he was selling recently, he says, one interested buyer had come down from Auckland to see the property - and spent most of his visit FaceTiming his wife so she could see the productive outdoor space.
"That was certainly something they got really excited about. I think they were looking forward to coming to Timaru and growing some of their own food and not having to trawl round the supermarkets. They want the good life."
First home buyers are increasingly looking for a property where they can grow and harvest some of their own food.
Andy Stewart, a real estate agent with Professionals based in Palmerston North, says he's seen the same thing across the Manawatu/Wanganui region.
"I've actually being seeing this for a while. There are more and more young couples and young families who are keen to get the good life plot. So I would definitely mention vege gardens, fruit trees or a chook shed in my marketing."
In fact his own stepson is looking for a property that offers those sorts of features right now, Andy admits.
"It's him and his wife and they have a three-year-old and another on the way. They are looking at a place in Otaki which has a chicken coop, a couple of acres of land, lots of room for a vege garden. Not that they are very good gardeners! But they want to learn."
Even a few years ago, young families might have put off a property that had a large garden, feeling they were "too busy" to keep it going.
"I mean some young people are still so busy, they don't want any garden, they don't even want to cut a lawn. They feel they just don't have time. But you are seeing more and more people who are saying that actually that's how they want to spend their time, with their kids and as a family."
It's hard to quantify how much having a productive garden would increase a house's price, but he's confident it would... for the right buyer.
"There will be people who see value in a house having a vege plot and people who see it as work for them. But probably the later won't look at that property. But I think the buyers who are looking for that and find the ideal block that provides those sorts of things, will pay a little bit more and the vendors that are selling should consider that to be a value."
Ida in Timaru, who's selling in order to downsize to a unit (which has space for a vege garden - she checked) so she'll be nearer family as she's getting older, says she's not surprised first home buyers want a garden and the chance to grow some of their own food.
Indeed, she had a childhood just like that herself; growing up in a small house on the edge of a quarter-acre section, with a gardening-mad dad who had the rest of the space planted in fruit trees and veges.
"Every house I have ever lived in I have always made sure I had a vege garden. It's lovely to go and pick your own fresh food," she says.
And she's even seen this upsurge in interest in the good life within her own family.
"My son and his partner have just bought a house in Temuka," she confesses. "And the first thing they did was put a vege patch in. So I thought maybe that was my influence and I'm quite proud of that."
A chook shed and few chickens is also an attractive amenity for home buyers looking for the good life. "Most of the time people selling a house with a chicken coop will leave the chickens," real estate agent Andy Stewart says.