A large residential landholding on a plateau overlooking Queenstown’s town centre is being touted as a very rare offering.
Going to auction on April 6, the 1386 square metre site — in Salmond Pl, off Kent St — has a ‘‘totally liveable’’ four-bedroom home but also a valuable high-density zoning, local Colliers listing agent James O’Hagan says.
It’s also steeped in history — prior to the Five Rivers-based Selbie family buying it as a holiday retreat in 1976, it was owned by well-known local borough councillor, the late Marygold Miller.
A prominent environmental and heritage crusader, she successfully helped saved the old library from demolition and was behind a campaign that stopped a 10-storey hotel being built in the Gardens’ Park St reserve.
O’Hagan says what’s special about the location is ‘‘that big Queenstown Hill view’’, without the need to go any higher, where steep properties are dearer to develop and also make for a less friendly walk from the CBD.
‘‘It’s very rare to get this size of landholding on a flat site in walking proximity [to the CBD].’’
He also suggests the high-density zoning gives a new buyer a lot of flexibility, whether it’s developing, at least initially, on the balance of the land, building a ‘‘mega-pad’’, or putting up a duplex, townhouse or an apartment-style development.
O’Hagan points out the height limit’s 12m, but could go to 16.5m under a proposed plan variation, though there’s ‘‘a lot of water to go under the bridge’, before that could eventuate.
And if a new buyer didn’t want to develop in a hurry, he notes the 1960s ‘‘character home’’ was last renovated about 10 years ago and is a popular Airbnb rental.
Using comparable sales, he suggests the land’s valued at between $3600 and $4000 a square metre — ‘‘certainly interest over $5 million is where I would expect we would be pitching’’.
