Decaying $4m home sits empty

The three-bedroom, three-bathroom house is perched above Wellington’s millionaire mile and is worth about $4 million. But even in a housing boom – and a housing crisis – 304 Oriental Parade has sat empty, turning derelict, for most of the past 17 years.

The neighbours are not happy. They say it’s a dangerous eyesore that is putting their own properties at risk.

Homes.co.nz estimates the property is worth $3.75m, while Wellington City Council values it at $4.17m. All but $70,000 of that value is in the 809m2 of land.

It is clear nobody has lived there for some time. The remaining spouting is hanging loose, roofing tiles are missing, the path is overgrown, weatherboards are coming up and an external cable is hanging loose.

Neighbour Paula Comerford said roofing tiles from the house had been landing on her cable-car roof and the lack of guttering was threatening to cause slips on her land.

‘‘It was a beautiful house,’’ said Comerford, who tried to buy it with her partner in 2005, before they built their own house next door. The couple that did buy it broke up and never moved in, she said. Apart from someone renting it for about six months it had been empty.

Records show the house is owned by Shazwel Investments Ltd, which is owned by Sharon Scaife, also referred to as Sharon Woodley in council documents.

Neither Scaife nor her ex-husband could be contacted this week, despite repeated calls to their cell phones and an office number.

Council spokesperson Richard MacLean said the council was well aware of the issue and was working with the owner to address issues.