A Wānaka site originally planned to become a luxury retirement village is now on the market as a mortgagee sale with just a fraction of the original plans brought to life.

Bayleys Wānaka says the 1.4ha section a stone’s throw from Lake Wānaka, which was known as Roys Bay Estate, now offers a ‘ready-made’ opportunity for a developer to create 60+ homes in central Wānaka.

Located in Meadowstone off Mt Aspiring Road, it comes with an existing scheme plan and resource consent for 63 lifestyle townhouses, plus a partially completed roading network and services.

“Under any scenario, a development site of this size in one of New Zealand’s most coveted and fast-growing locations is rare,” Bayleys Wānaka director Mat Andrews said.

The sale includes 1.4ha of land and does not include the remaining 0.4ha which has on it 10 buildings in various states of completion. PHOTO: Bayleys Wānaka

It excludes the 0.4ha of land on which a number of dwellings have been built or are under construction. 

Signage advertising townhouses in Roys Bay Estate was still visible on site on Wednesday (April 6) and the company website still advertises the high-end properties. 

Roys Bay Estate directors Christopher Holmes and Catherine Hannon could not be reached for comment and the company’s project manager Doug Walker declined to comment.

The site has a long and complicated history. PHOTO: Wānaka App

The project has a long and complicated history, first coming under fire after its owners sought consent to develop it into a retirement village in 2008, in an application that was denied by Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) after residents campaigned against the proposal.

Roys Bay Estate eventually got the tick of approval for a 73-unit retirement village from the Environment Court in 2012 after a mediation process with approximately 120 affected residents.

Signage outside the property still advertises luxury townhouses by Roys Bay Estate. PHOTO: Wānaka App

But the company later opted out of the Retirement Village Act and made numerous variations to its consent, to the anger of some neighbouring residents and the dissatisfaction of those who had made deposits securing future homes in the lifestyle retirement village.

Flooding concerns have also been raised by the Otago Regional Council and as recently as last February, Roys Bay Estate was issued with an abatement notice by QLDC.

The notice was cancelled by April the same year after another variation to the consent was granted, council confirmed.

The mortgage tender on the property, which is located at 2 Kelliher Drive and 1 Ashgrove Lane, will close on Tuesday (April 12).