A mysterious block of land has hit the market for sale with an ultra-low auction reserve of $55,000.
The estate sale of the 1012sqm on State Highway 3, in Awahuri, Manawatu, has got locals talking, and not simply because of the price.
The property isn’t connected to any services, lacks a boundary fence and, importantly, was owned by someone whose identity was a complete mystery to the community.
Locals had no idea who owned it and assumed it was part of the larger, neighbouring lifestyle block.
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“It’s just spare land that no one really knew whose it was. It was a bit of a mystery I suppose for quite some time,” Bayleys listing agent Jack Monckton told OneRoof.
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He said the property had been owned by out-of-towners for several years but was now being sold as an estate sale (Monckton himself was unsure when and how the estate got involved).
“They [owners] are not locals and the locals had no idea whose it was. It was just looked after.”
Monckton said the bare section did have some challenges because it had no services and advice would need to be sought about what council permitted to be done on the site.
However, he said at $55,000 – less than half of its $120,000 RV – it still represented a good deal.
Until recently the section had been farmed by the owners of the neighbouring property. Photo / Supplied
“That’s the intention with setting the reserve there. Let’s get some interest. It will take a bit of a creative approach but definitely an opportunity for someone,” he said.
A caravan could definitely be put on the freehold site, but there was less certainty about whether a house could be built on it even though there were similar sized lifestyle properties around.
“There are people who buy these sort of properties. You end up with all sorts of different people considering it – someone who may not want to go down a traditional lifestyle property route. There’s a number of different ways it could be looked at I suppose.”
Monckton said a lot of the titles dated back to the late 1800s when Awahuri appeared to have been earmarked as a future settlement.
The area, which is about 15 minutes from Palmerston North and 10 minutes from Feilding, was a mix of farms and lifestyle blocks. It has a population of just over 2000 people and 861 dwellings, according to Statistics New Zealand data.
In a complete coincidence, the neighbouring property which had been farming the mystery section have both been put up for sale at the same time. The two owners are not linked.
The four-bedroom, two-bathroom home at 1634 State Highway 3, in Awahuri, is being marketed as a self-sufficient lifestyle property on a 7346sqm section and has an asking price of $800,000-plus.
- State Highway 3, in Awahuri, Manawatu, goes to auction on December 9
