Prime property’s price drops 30%
A prime property on Bluff Hill that has been on the market for nearly a year and a half has dropped its price from the original $1.2 million to $799,000.
Bluff Hill Motupōhue Environment Trust project leader David Swann said the trust would be preparing for a fight if the current property owner went forward for a resource consent.
“[In doing that,] we would galvanise local opinion and go at the battle.”
The property at 6 Ward Pde, near the Bluff signpost, had first been listed for sale in October 2022 for $1.2 million, then in November 2023 for sale by tender, and in December 2023 for price by negotiation.
Swann said the new price was “a bit of
movement” on the property.
“I think it’s for the market to decide [the price] ... Given the difficulty that they’re going to have in getting both resource and building consent for that site.
“In some respect, it was more realistic to be at the high level [price] in the desperate hope that a billionaire would come along.
“Now we’re descending into normal price ranges, and a normal person would run a mile.”
Swann said a property expert had said to him that the land could possibly be worth $250,000.
“It’s worth taking a risk for $250,000, it’s not worth taking a risk at $750,000, and it’s certainly not worth taking at risk at $1 million,” he said.
Swann added that the Bluff Hill was “healing at a pace that hadn’t been seen in recent memory”.
“We have rata that’s beginning to appear on the northern flanks of the hill, so that’s real progress.
“It’s just deeply ironic that there’s the potential of seeing this deep wound [the property] on the other side of the hill, just as we’re seeing the hill heal.”
When asked if the trust would join hands with the council to “fight” when the time of the resource consent came, Swann said, it was “difficult for both Environment Southland and the Invercargill City Council because they were bound by legislation and they’re not permitted to have opinions on this.”
“If a consent application is made for Environment Southland, they just have to follow the law in judging that resource consent.
“I suspect that they feel exactly as we do, from a personal perspective, but they have to follow the law.”