A run-down cottage on a quarter acre section in Southland was snapped up last month for just over $70,000 – making it one of the cheapest houses sold this year.
The 110-year-old home on Ferry Street, in Wyndham, which last changed hands more than 25 years ago for $19,500, had an RV $115,000 and was billed “a project to get stuck into”.
The listing agent for the three-bedroom home, Property Brokers' Georgia Yeoman, told OneRoof the property had attracted a huge amount interest from buyers around the country.
In fact, the property was one of the most viewed homes on OneRoof in March. "It’s definitely the cheapest listing that I’ve had, and people came from all over," she said, adding that the new owner was from outside the region.
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“Everyone loves a do-up, and that’s what the people who bought it wanted.”
Yeoman said that the house had been lived in until last year, so was definitely habitable, and with its quarter-acre section, mature trees and outbuildings, was likely to make a good home.
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“We’re a small community at the bottom of New Zealand, 20 minutes to Gore, 30 minutes to Invercargill. There’s lots of interest to move somewhere cheaper,” she said, adding that there is a lot of work in the region’s farms, the Fonterra factory at Edendale or locals travel into Gore or Invercargill for work.
“People like the slow pace of living and there’s lots to do,” she said.
The cottage just missed out on breaking the record for New Zealand's cheapest. A fixer-upper in Mataura, in Gore, continues to hold that record after selling in February for $70,000.
A three-bedroom 1960s home at 19 Raglan Street, Wyndham, is asking $330,000. Photo / Supplied
While properties can be found in Wyndham for around $200,000 to $300,000, such as a tidy three-bedroom place on 19 Raglan Street asking $330,000, Yeoman said some houses in town can go up to $500,000-$600,000. More expensive lifestyle properties out of town can go for up to $1.2 million. She is currently marketing a four-bedroom, 10-year-old house on 3694sqm on 1120 Knapdale Road in Chatton, 10 minutes out of Gore, that is asking $825,000.
OneRoof records show 2022’s cheapest standalone house was a 36sqm home on Otira Highway, in Otira, Westland, that sold for $30,000 in October – just $5000 more than what it changed hands for in 2005.
A 95sqm cottage on Romilly Street, Westport, also on the West Coast, sold last May for $55,000, well below its 2019 CV of $170,000, while in September, a three-bedroom cottage on Slaney Street, Invercargill, sold for $60,000, well below its $83,000 asking price and less than what it sold for last in May 2018.
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