Anyone want a village?

Indubitable

There is a village for sale in New Zealand for a low price if anyone wants it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/newzealand/7853243/New-Zealand-mountain-village-for-sale-for-470000.html

A tiny and remote New Zealand village is for sale for just NZ$1 million (£470,000).

Included in the deal are the hotel, fire station, town hall and 18 houses.

Otira, population 44, elevation 3,445ft, perches high in the Southern Alps of South Island.


Among the town's attraction are spectacular snowcapped mountains and a pristine national park filled with native birds. The TranzAlpine train hauling large numbers of international tourists from Christchurch to Greymouth passes through twice a day.

However, winters in the village are very cold and windy, and Otira can get cut off for days.

As for the fire station, it has no fire brigade but is rented out as a mechanic's workshop.

The Otira Hotel, which started life as a coaching stop on the alpine pass in the 1860s, is the only place for miles around to find a bed, beer or meal, and also doubles as the post office.

Almost all the buildings are made of wood, most pre-framed and assembled on site when the town was established as a base for railway and road construction in the 1920s.

Many of the houses are now rented to tenants such as railway workers and retired people.

Bill and Christine Hennah, the current owners, have put Otira up for sale on New Zealand's Trade Me online auction website and with an estate agent.

Potential buyers have the option of taking the hotel only or the whole town.

The couple themselves bought Otira in 1998 after they had passed through while on holiday and "felt sorry for it".

The town belonged at the time to a company that had purchased it from the former state railways corporation.

"We thought we were buying the hotel," said Mrs Hennah, whose parents emigrated to New Zealand from Hull, East Yorkshire, when she was six years old.

"Then we found out the rest of the village went with it."

The couple moved to Otira from Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, and have since worked tirelessly on restoring their properties.

Mrs Hennah told the Telegraph: "We had lots of energy when we came here, but I'm approaching retirement age and it's getting too much.

"The ideal buyers would be a reasonably young couple, perhaps 40-ish, with their children having moved on, or maybe a grown-up child left to help them out."

There is just one part of town that Mr and Mrs Hennah plan to hang on to.

The old school closed in 1998 and they intend to turn it into their retirement home.

"There's nowhere else we'd rather be," Mrs Hennah said. "It's a totally different lifestyle here."

I would buy it if I had the money.

Bleedin Delish

fantastic we should try get a consortium going here to pay £10 each or something and buy it. Would be fantastic to say you own a town!!

Indubitable

Yeah it would be nice.

galwayrush

Might be a good investment for NAMA......Oh wait, they don't do good investments.

thetonynator

Bleedin Delish wrote: »

fantastic we should try get a consortium going here to pay £10 each or something and buy it. Would be fantastic to say you own a town!!

Doubt you will get 47000 people to pay £10 each . . .!!!

AnonoBoy

Why buy a village when you could get a little terraced house in Dublin for twice that price?

My name is URL

It makes me sad that there are idiots in the country that pay that much for some poxy looking McMansion alongside some noisy national road.. sad and pissed off

orourkeda

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Why buy a village when you could get a little terraced house in Dublin for twice that price?

You wouldnt get a caravan in Dublin for that.

Superbus

I got a village right here!


*gestures*

cazzycaz

You never no i'll pledge the first £10.00!!:D

baltimore sun

cazzycaz wrote: »

You never no i'll pledge the first £10.00!!:D

I'm in and I call chairman for the committee for organising parties and general shananigan, no vice-chairman, chairman is too much responsibility

harr

and 10 euro from me:D

thetonynator

baltimore sun wrote: »

I'm in and I call chairman for the committee for organising parties and general shananigan, no vice-chairman, chairman is too much responsibility

I'll be treasurer:D:D:D

Indubitable

thetonynator wrote: »

Doubt you will get 4700 people to pay £10 each . . .!!!

47,000.

gavtron

i got 10 bucks as well come on it would be class!

actually yeah, it would need to be 47,000! doh!

Indubitable

Someone has to set this up

Creamsoda

thetonynator wrote: »

Doubt you will get 4700 people to pay £10 each . . .!!!

Maths fail... You would need 47000 people not 4700.

lil'bug

just pay more money i would if i wasn't skint!!!!!!!!!!!

Bonito

Does it come with an only gay? For equal opportunities and all that jazz.

artanevilla

500 each is doable.

strobe

I nominate thetonyator for ministers for finance of our new village, we can create a little Ireland in the southern hemisphere.

Bonito

artanevilla wrote: »

500 each is doable.

I'm not sharin'.

artanevilla

Bonito wrote: »

I'm not sharin'.

£470,000 so.

lil'bug

Bonito wrote: »

I'm not sharin'.

your not invited

My name is URL

strobe wrote: »

I nominate thetonyator for ministers for finance of our new village, we can create a little Ireland in the southern hemisphere.

ahem =p

Bonito

artanevilla wrote: »

£470,000 so.

Fine! See if I care!

lil'bug wrote: »

your not invited

My what?

Indubitable

My name is URL wrote: »

ahem =p

Then we shall call it super new ireland!

Indubitable

strobe wrote: »

I nominate thetonyator for ministers for finance of our new village

thetonynator wrote: »

Doubt you will get 4700 people to pay £10 each . . .!!!

lol

thetonynator

kingofthe3rdyrs wrote: »

47,000.

Creamsoda wrote: »

Maths fail... You would need 47000 people not 4700.

strobe wrote: »

I nominate thetonyator for ministers for finance of our new village, we can create a little Ireland in the southern hemisphere.

I hate being stupid . . .:P:pac:

Fratton Fred

If it was bought by After Hours, at least the village wouldn't be short of a few idiots!

thetonynator

Fratton Fred wrote: »

If it was bought by After Hours, at least the village wouldn't be short of a few idiots!

Yes i know i'm stupid, no need to rub it in . . .

Liam Byrne

Don't forget that the article quotes £470,000......so we'd be dealing with a completely different exchange rate!

Plus, a "village" would surely have a max of what, 500 houses ? So we're looking at about a grand each.....

That said, it sure beats the ridiculous prices here in Ireland; a grand for a house in a sunny, less-corrupt country ?

I'm tempted; even at €1,000 (plus another €800 or so to get there)

Kiwi_knock

47,000 people and only 18 houses. Danger **** a plenty

Fratton Fred

Could we not just buy Leitrim instead? I reckon you'd get that for €500, three pints of Heino and a bag of cheese and onion Tayto.

thetonynator

Fratton Fred wrote: »

Could we not just buy Leitrim instead? I reckon you'd get that for €500, three pints of Heino and a bag of cheese and onion Tayto.

Well 47,000 extra people there would triple the population . . .

JONJO THE MISER

Well i can put in £9.27.

Indubitable

JONJO THE MISER wrote: »

Well i can put in £9.27.

I will throw in the extra 73 cent. I feel like helping misers for some reason

Bob the Seducer

I'll put in 50 as long as I get to be Minister for Defence when we inevitably declare independence.

(now I wonder where I can find a Napoleon style uniform to compliment my new position...)

Odats

Might ring NAMA in the morning and see if they'd give me a loan of half a million euro.

anthony4335

Would love to see the banks responce to the application for a mortgauge.

Sofaspud

Hmmmm, would I be able to get broadand there?

Odats

Sofaspud wrote: »

Hmmmm, would I be able to get broadand there?

Good point presume New Zealand has decent BB infrastructure

Sea Sharp

I bagsey being the town man-whore.

30euro, take it or leave it?

GavRedKing

Sign me up. Although I can imagine a minister trying claim travel expenses from NZ to Ireland night cause a storm.

Regardless, NZ here I come.

Elevator

Bleedin Delish wrote: »

fantastic we should try get a consortium going here to pay £10 each or something and buy it. Would be fantastic to say you own a town!!

how about 980 of us paying €500 each for it,

who's with me?

Indubitable

Elevator wrote: »

how about 980 of us paying €500 each for it,

who's with me?

me

CrazyRabbit

How much would it cost in monopoly money?

thetonynator

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

How much would it cost in monopoly money?

http://www.thegreatestsiteever.com/2009/01/whats-monopoly-moneys-exchange-rate.html

Rabies

Odats wrote: »

Good point presume New Zealand has decent BB infrastructure

nope

Ireland is better

Indubitable

Rabies wrote: »

nope

Ireland is better

Wow. Ours is really bad.

Rabies

strict and enforced d/l caps, slower speeds, high monthly charge, handful of operators, but its getting better... slowly