Prime picking: Properties this close to Arrowtown's CBD rarely come to market

It’s one of the best-located residential sites in Arrowtown.

Up for tender is 5 Anglesea Street, which is surrounded on two sides by Rose Douglas Park and only a few minutes’ walk from the town’s main street.

The 1267 square metre site — occupied since about the ’50s by a well-maintained, 120sqm three-bedroom bungalow — has been
owned for decades by the Ministry of Education, which no longer requires it.

As government property — the vendor till recently was, officially, Her Majesty the Queen but is now, following her death, His Majesty the King — it was offered to South Island iwi Ngai Tahu for $2.8 million.

Ngai Tahu didn’t take up the offer, however that figure’s now the benchmark price.

The local-based listing agents are New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty’s Colleen Murfin and George Passmore.

Murfin believes the site, on an ‘‘upper’ terrace location, with great views, is one of Arrowtown’s best-located residential sections.

‘‘There’s very little opportunity in that area to purchase property.

‘‘How often do you have some thing come up with a) a park on two boundaries and b) probably a three-minute walk down into the main street of Arrowtown?’’

Rose Douglas Park, Murfin points out, was named after a long-serving Arrowtown School teacher and headmistress.

Part of ‘old Arrowtown’, 5 Anglesea sits within the Arrowtown residential historic management zone, so any rebuild has to be in keeping with the heritage of the area.

‘‘We are suggesting people go to an architect or a designer to find out exactly what they can do,’’ Murfin says.

She believes the property will suit ‘‘someone who knows the area and values it, and will maybe extend the life of the house and rent it out for a few years while they get all their plans in order’’.

The site’s also opposite the former Arrowtown School, which ran through to Caernarvon St.

Last year, four sites occupied by that school also went on the market.

The three sites with no dwellings, all about 1010sqm, sold for between $2.25m and $2.3m while the 785sqm site with a small dwelling sold for $2.9m.

Tenders on 5 Anglesea close October 12.

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