The site of a deadly Dunedin blaze has been listed for sale for $400,000-plus.
3 Phillips Street, in Kensington, hit the headlines in 2022 after a fire at the boarding house there left one of the tenants, Christopher Paul Bonisch, dead.
A second fire broke out at the property last year, consuming the derelict double-storey villa and leaving only rubble.
Owner Brent Matthews had initially planned to redevelop the 627sqm site but decided to put it on the market for sale instead.
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Matthews told OneRoof that after the first fire in 2022 he had claimed on his building insurance. The payout, however, was not enough to rebuild the 100-year-old former boarding house.
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“The first fire was quite a bad fire,” Matthews said. “We were renovating at the time. We had fully reclad the back, fully insulated the back, and scaffolding was about to go up to put on a new roof before the fire.
“My insurance stepped up [after the fire] but didn’t pay out enough to cover what needed to happen. We lost our income. The fire put us three steps backward. So, we started demolishing the [house].
“It was just a shell when the second fire happened [in October 2023],” he said. That blaze ripped through what was left of the house and razed it to the ground. Only two chimneys and the staircase were left standing.
At the time of the second fire there were fears that it was being used by rough sleepers. However, a search of the property by emergency services found that no one had been trapped inside.
Firefighters sift through the remains of the property in October 2023. Photo / Stephen Jaquiery
The property is on the market for sale looking for buyer enquiry over $400,000. Photo / Supplied
The neighbouring boarding house at 1A Phillips Street, suffered damage from the fire. It is currently being restored and renovated into five flats, said Matthews, who is in contact with the owner. “So, there will be flats there, not room by room.”
Matthews said if he didn’t manage to sell his property, he would consider building two units with a facade in keeping with the villa’s original look.
The two fires in 2022 and 2023 were not the first time that tragedy had struck the property. The first pākeha owner William Cargill built his homestead there in 1880, only to have it burn down in 1884, said Matthews. The land was then subdivided into sections and a William Grove built the Two Sisters.
Listing agent Matt Morton, of Matt Morton & Co, said the site was zoned General Residential 1, which means the property could hold either one dwelling with up to six bedrooms or a duplex with the same number of bedrooms.
Morton, who specialises in investment and development deals, said the property was in a good rental location. “You can’t really rebuild the boarding house again. That would have to have a resource consent,” he said.
The 627sqm site is being sold as a development opportunity. Photo / Supplied
“My thoughts are it would probably be ideal for a duplex. Maybe a couple of townhouses, designed for the worker/professional rental market. That would work in that little spot in Kensington. It’s only a wee area, but it’s pretty much full of rentals. And it’s relatively close to all the right kind of amenities.”
Morton said not a lot of sections were coming up for sale. They tended to be popular with investors, but the market had been tough. “The developers are still grappling with building costs and trying to actually make numbers work on things,” he said.
“But the overall [investment] market is actually lifting. We saw a big change from July onwards, and I think the catalyst for investors coming back and getting more involved, is the re-set of the bright-line period.“
Lower interest rates and the lowering of loan-to-value ratios for investors this year had helped as well, he said. “Off the back of that, I’m expecting now that we’re getting an investment buoyancy come back. It’s in a recovery mode now from my perspective.
“I think that’ll actually start turning a lot more investors towards the development angle. If they can’t purchase existing, then development’s actually a nice option.”
- 3 Phillips Street, in Kensington, Dunedin, is seeking enquiries over $400,000
