There's no catch - if you're willing to move to a rural area where agriculture is the primary business, you can get a home for $165K.

But you don't need to immigrate to New Zealand for this - you can find the same deal in the USA.

Do you have to work agri culture? I live in a remote-ish place in the mountains where agri culture is the primary business and houses and land can be had for far less than 165k. However I make software from there. Could not be happier. Could someone do that there or is that somehow not allowed? Meaning if there are really no strings I can see me live there easily.

I don't think there are any restrictions since as far as I know, the town's website just links to local realtors, anyone that is qualified to buy property there can buy property, no need to sign up for a job in the town. It looks fairly easy to get a NZ work visa if you're in a high-demand occupation, but I don't know what the Visa requirements are for a remote worker, so you'd need to investigate that.

But there are thousands of small towns just like it across the world, so it's not clear why you'd pick this particular one based only on this plea from the town for more local workers.

If cost of living is important to you and you're ok in a country where English is not the native language, you can certainly find areas with much lower cost of living (while still having good internet access)

A catch (in my opinion as a New Zealander originally from Christchurch) is that Kaitangata is remote with nasty weather.

I've been around there on a tour of the South Island (from Sydney)

There sure are a lot of sandflies with little red eyes that bite during the day.

I know that sounds like a mega moan, just something to beware of.

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/sandflies-and-mosquitoes/page-1

Hmm we encountered the flies on the west coast, but not in this area, east of invercargill.

Most of NZ doesn't have sand flies. That area is unlikely to have them (too cold, and on east coast).

Also I have never seen a sand fly with red eyes...

You're thinking of the west coast. Kaitangata is too cold for sandflies to get to large numbers =)

Greenbank, WV