A run-down shack in the much sought-after suburb of Ponsonby could be yours for under $1m - but buyers beware it will need a bit of work to be transformed into a dream home.
A DIY "bargain" on a tiny slice of Ponsonby land, for someone prepared to get their hands dirty, has failed to sell at auction despite some interest.
Jutting out above a small concrete wall lined with paua shells on Summer St, the weather-worn shack and its prime patch of Ponsonby land are now on the market for $865,000.
The property at 89 Summer St, which has a rating value (RV) of $930,000, could be the lucky break for an aspiring Ponsonby homeowner, but the house is not liveable because of its sagging floors, heavily damaged, cobwebbed walls and precarious stairs.
It is the land that has the most value: property information site QV.co.nz valued it at $910,000. Improvement value, the house, is only $20,000.
It is the second time the property has been on the market this year, having been bought by Aucklander Mark Harper, 62, for $800,000.
A look inside the rickety old Ponsonby house. Photo: NZH/Michael Craig
He said the amount of work it required was daunting, but it was all about the location.
"We put a bid in because you are looking at entry level for getting into a Ponsonby suburb. The fact is Ponsonby, anywhere central city, is expensive to get into.
"This still gets you a reasonable size of dirt, albeit it small, but relative to section sizes in Ponsonby this can be seen as normal, so gives you that opportunity as a developer."
Harper said the house was not fit for anything but demolition.
"No straight floors in the property, heavily damaged wall linings, it has obviously been rat-infested at times, he said. "It's gone beyond repair and renovation, that's the best way to describe it."
The property is unliveable in its current state. Photo: NZH/Michael Craig
Harper said with some help from his son he had hoped to build a neat little house in the central city suburb, but because of personal health reasons he was reluctantly putting it back on the market.
Despite the extensive work the property would require, it could be considered a bargain in a suburb where the QV median sale price across the past three months was $2.2m.
The property information site showed Ponsonby homes were on average going for 40 per cent above the rating value.
On the same street as Harper's property, a three-bedroom pre-1914 villa with a rating value of $1.09m was sold for $1,495,000 - $405,000 (27 per cent) above its valuation.
Just around the corner on John St a two-bedroom villa, dated pre-1914, with a rating value of $980,000 sold for $1,372,000 - $392,000 (26 per cent) above valuation.
