Worst house, best street: Derelict villa untouched for 50 years

Snapping up a bargain is possible when you buy the worst house in the best street. This rundown 1900s villa in Northland, Wellington, has an RV of $1.33 million, yet offers are invited over $690,000. The land value portion of the valuation is $1.29m.

And it’s easy to see why you might get it for a song. The property, which has been listed for the first time in 70 years, is near derelict, and listing agent Michael Adams of Ray White Wellington notes it has been “untouched for 50 years”. Which helps explain the massive creepers that cover most of the large house except the front, which has been tidied up for sale.

“We were first appointed to market the property around three months ago, and it has taken eight to 10 weeks to get everything cleared up,” Adams says. “There were six to eight truckloads of rubbish taken away from in and around the house, and another couple of trucks to take away two trees that needed to come down.

“We don’t often say ‘as is, where is’, but this distressed villa is not for the faint-hearted.”

Adams says the family purchased the property around 1950, and converted the lower level after 10 or so years to add a flat. But not long after, it started going downhill after the owner’s husband died.

“Mum” lived here, but has been unable to maintain it,” he says. “It has been vacant since January. I found it interesting that in 33 years of being an agent and seeing thousands and thousands of old villas, I have never been in a villa that has not been repiled and found the floors are level, as they are in this house.

“We couldn’t get under the house to check because of all the undergrowth, but eventually it was cleared, and we found there was a concrete perimeter around the house and concrete and brick foundations. That’s a real bonus.

“The owner found out it was an Edmund Platt house. He built homes in Northland around the turn of the last century that were higher spec that others, which could explain the ornate mouldings and extra-wide skirting boards.”

Photos show rotting and damaged wall linings, with black mould in many of the rooms. But the bones of the house remain.

Despite the rundown condition, Adams says 90% of viewers are looking with a view to renovation, rather than demolition. “We initially thought it would be a pull-down, but have changed our thinking on that, with the foundations, and the matai floors are in very good condition, with little or no borer.”

Adams says there is some smoke damage downstairs in the flat, after an electric blanket caught fire. But there is no fire damage.

The 512m² property, at 78 Creswick Terrace, Northland, is in a pricey sought-after street. Adams says there are properties valued at $3m and $2m on the other side of the road.

This one will be sold by tender, with a deadline of August 31, 2023.