Danny Wu has been living in Nelson for three weeks after snapping up a job at a law firm that came with a $25,000 home deposit perk.

A lawyer from Auckland has been lured to Nelson by a law firm's unique job offer that includes a $25,000 contribution to a home deposit.

C & F Legal listed job vacancies for two senior lawyers online in October, with perks including a car park, gym membership and a $25,000 deposit on a home in Nelson.

Danny Wu, who has been living and working in Auckland for the past eight years, was the successful candidate, lured from the bright lights of New Zealand's biggest city to the slower pace of life in Nelson.

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The 33-year-old started work last month and said the $25,000 sweetener was part of what lured him south.

"It was definitely one of the factors," he said.

ALDEN WILLIAMS/FAIRFAX NZ C & F Legal associate director Andrew Shaw says the firm's $25,000 home deposit job offer was a success.

"It is quite unique in the sense that I've never seen those kind of offers before."

Wu said he was also impressed by the quality of work on offer in Nelson, the "good vibe" of the law firm and the work-life balance.

"You don't have to be in the big cities to get on that corporate ladder so to say," he said.

"I think it's more of a myth than the reality because you can really get good quality work anywhere in the country. The provinces offer slightly different things than the big centres.

"I think you can have a better work-life balance in the provinces."

There were also negative aspects of Auckland that he wanted to escape.

"The traffic jams - it took an hour for me to get to work, and now it's a 10-minute walk."

Wu moved to New Zealand from Taiwan 18 years ago and lived in Dunedin where his parents taught at the dental school.

He moved to Wellington to study law and worked for eight years in Auckland.

"It has always been my intention to come back to the South Island and having worked for the last three weeks it just confirms that this is where I want to be."

He said he took a six-hour walk in Abel Tasman National Park over the long weekend, which confirmed one of his reasons for relocating.

"The scenery's amazing and just confirms that I've made the right decision to come back."

C & F Legal associate director Andrew Shaw, who came up with the $25,000 home deposit offer, said he was "very pleased" with Wu's appointment.

There had been a lot of interest in the job offer and "quite a few" applications, he said.

There were originally two senior solicitor positions advertised, both offering the $25,000 home deposit as a sweetener, but only one has been employed.

Instead, the firm chose to employ a legal executive, who relocated from the West Coast, Shaw said. That position did not come with the cash incentive.

Shaw previously said that quality lawyers often had "tunnel vision and don't necessarily understand that their career in law can be achieved, and their goals met by leaving the larger city centres and working in the provinces".

The advertised salary for the new solicitor position was $90,000 to $110,000.

The home deposits would be paid any time after the candidates have worked for the firm for six months and on confirmation of a house purchase in Nelson for personal use.

The deal binds the employee to the firm for five years and if they leave before then they have to pay back the $25,000.

Wu said he already owned a house in the Auckland suburb of Flatbush and would be looking to buy in Nelson later in the year.

Buying a house was much more affordable in Nelson than Auckland, according to Interest.co.nz's Home Loan Affordability Report, released in December.

The median house price in Nelson in December was $385,000 compared to $914,300 in central Auckland.