- All three of Thomas Fleming’s Tauwhare properties sold under the hammer at a Harcourts auction last week.
- Fleming’s $660,000 house sale will fund a nursing scholarship in his aunt’s memory.
- The auction was heartwarming, fulfilling Fleming’s dying wish and aiding first-time lifestyle property buyers.
A Waikato farmer’s dying wish to honour his favourite aunt by funding a nursing scholarship in her name has come true after his house sold for more than $600,000.
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Three rural properties owned by the late Thomas Fleming were snapped up at auction last week, but the sale of his three-bedroom home on Scotsman Valley Road mattered most.
The $660,000 will help nursing students at Otago Polytechnic, where Fleming’s aunt trained.
The property had been partially renovated, but the new owners will need to "finish the job". Photo / Supplied
Harcourts KDRE owner Kevin Deane described the sale and Fleming’s decision to set up the scholarship as “heartwarming”.
Fleming died last July with specific instructions about what should happen to the proceeds from the sale of his three Tauwhare properties.
“He was very particular that the proceeds of one particular property were going to the formation of a scholarship,” Deane said.
“I think it’s a beautiful story. I genuinely think this aunt meant that much to him that he wanted to acknowledge her work and what she had done and everything else.”
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The property had undergone extensive remodelling and, according to the listing, needed someone to “come in and finish the job”.
The couple who purchased the three-bedroom, one-bathroom home had been competing against a phone bidder and had found the auction quite tense. The 5587sqm lifestyle block was their first and was just around the corner from their parents’ place.
Deane said the buyers had been a bundle of nerves and were relieved when the hammer came down on their $660,000 bid.
Fleming’s largest farm property on 13.41 hectares sold for $1.2m plus GST. Photo / Supplied
A local farmer bought the property with two dwellings plus the farm buildings. Photo / Supplied
Harcourts auctioneer Shane Cortese added: “It’s a feel-good story because the house was bought by first-time buyers, and the money went to a good cause. Everyone was really happy.”
Otago Polytechnic executive director Megan Pōtiki said Fleming’s donation to the School of Nursing would help struggling students.
The cost of studying was often a barrier to entry, and scholarships played a crucial role in improving access, she said.
Otago Polytechnic is still working out the exact details of how the scholarship would be allocated.
The other two Fleming properties on the auction block were bought by Tauwhare locals. The proceeds from those two sales would go to surviving family members.
The larger property, which came with two dwellings plus farm buildings, sold for $1.2 million plus GST, while a bare 1.1ha block sold for $670,000, with the buyer planning to build his dream home on the elevated site.
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