One dollar house sale a real win-win

Hayley Tawhiti was "over the moon" to purchase the $1 Auckland house for their new Hastings subdivision. Photo / Paul Taylor

A $1 Auckland house has found a new home in Hastings.

The Mt Roskill house was listed on TradeMe by owner Iliyas Adam in September.

Despite the low price, interested buyers were deterred by the condition that the house be moved from the site by its new owner.

But for Hayley and Shannon Tawhiti, owners of Relocate Homes NZ, moving houses is what they do for a living. Mrs Tawhiti said they had been "over the moon" about the very low price.

"It was a win-win, he was going to have to pay for it to be demolished, and it was good for us because we got a cheap house."

If the Tawhitis hadn't bought the house Mr Adam could have paid $3300 to have the house removed and demolished.

But when it came time for money to change hands, the Tawhitis ended up obtaining the house for nothing as Mr Adam did not accept the $1 coin offered to him.

The whole process was quick - the house was purchased in December soon after the Tawhitis found the listing.

As they owned a moving company it was removed from the site fairly quickly.

"It was a brick home so we stripped the bricks, took the roof down, and moved it to the yard in Takanini", Mrs Tawhiti said.

"Once the consent popped through down here we moved it".

It arrived at its new site on Wavell St in Hastings yesterday, after leaving Auckland at 10pm on Tuesday.

In six weeks, Mrs Tawhiti hopes the house will become one of the many in the their rental portfolio.

"We'll be insulating it fully, giving it some new paint and carpet, plus a new kitchen and bathroom.

The site will be turned into a subdivision, with an additional three houses on that plot and another five on an adjacent property.

In May, Mr Tawhiti's company SHT Holdings was fined $14,000 after earlier pleading guilty to moving six houses on to Hastings properties without the required resource consent.

SHT Holdings, trading as Relocate Homes NZ, moved three houses on to a section in Totara St, Mahora, without the required consent.

Two other houses were illegally moved on to two adjoining Williams St sections in Mahora, while a sixth house was moved on to a section in Flaxmere without consent.