Two student blocks on Dunedin’s infamous Castle Street are on the market for sale.
Locally known as the Fridge and the Fridgette, the flats sit side by side on what has become the city’s most popular strip for student accommodation - and parties, including the legendary and sometime riotous Flo Week.
Listing agent Matt Morton, director of Matt Morton Real Estate, said Castle Street was a lot calmer now than it used to be (indeed the Otago Daily Times reported police as saying student behaviour during Flo Week this year was exemplary).
He dubbed the two seven-bedroom units, which are for sale for $2.35 million, as “quintessential Castle Street”, writing in his marketing that students line up to secure them.
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“Both flats have leases already signed for 2025 at $1540 per week,” he said.
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Famous former residents of the street include Kiwi rock stars Six60, who took their name from the house they used to live in.
Morton told OneRoof the nicknames for 588 & 590 Castle Street had nothing to do with the storage of alcohol but instead were a romantic and whimsical reference to the days when student accommodation lacked decent heating.
“The students like to name different flats and some of them get their own little followings,” he said, noting the affection Dunedin students had for the Fridge and Fridgette.
The agent stressed that the Fridge and Fridgette complied with Healthy Homes standards these days and had heat pumps.
Morton said living on Castle Street was a popular rite of passage for most second year students at Otago University, and demand for accommodation there was huge. “There’s a lot of noise, a lot of parties,” he said.
Cool but not cold: Inside the well heated student accommodation. Photo / Supplied
The band Six60 pose on a couch outside their former student flat at 660 Castle Street. Photo / Supplied
Castle Street had a waiting list “pretty much all the time. The students put on their best behaviour. They’re smiling, they’re really friendly. They literally come with CVs for the property managers”.
Morton noted that the days of couch burnings had largely faded into memory. “That’s just a tiny little one percent. Most students, I find, are fantastic. They don’t cause problems.”
That’s partly because the university is “huge” on the security and safety of students, who have to sign a code of conduct to attend the university and there are consequences for those who break the code.
The Fridge and Fridgette used to be neighbouring male and female flats, hence the names, but Morton said they were both mixed, adding that property managers sometimes prefer female tenants because they tend to keep the flats a bit nicer than the boys.
They were still no-frills flats but the students tended to respect the properties.
The vendor had owned the Fridges for 12 years but had, on hitting retirement age, decided to exit the market.
Morton said the flats were a good investment. “Next year the rooms are being rented out at $220 a week. That’s generating a lot of cash.
“You have people that have owned [student] properties for 20-plus years and they’ve never had a day of vacancy.”
- 588 & 590 Castle Street North, in Dunedin, are on the market with an asking price of $2.35m
