Three of five residential properties, once owned by Wanganui woman Natasha May, have been sold at mortgagee auction.
The sales are part of a wider sweep by finance companies trying to recover outstanding debt owed by May.
One parcel of properties is being handled by Harcourts Wanganui and business and commercial property broker Noel Mouldey confirmed sales had been completed on two homes.
One was a two-storeyed property at 2a and 2b Portal St which was in two units with a rateable value of $220,000. The other was at 180 Anzac Pde and included a three bedroom stucco home as well as a one-bedroom unit on the same section which had a rateable value of $215,000.
Mr Mouldey said the third home - at 9 Hipango Tce - did not sell at auction but negotiations were continuing with a potential buyer. Its rateable value is $365,000
He said the properties that did sell went for "significantly below government valuation".
He could not divulge the prices.
Meanwhile, tenders for two other inner city commercial properties closed on Tuesday and Mr Mouldey said he expected a result from that process to be known next week.
They included a three-storey brick building at 49 Taupo Quay on the corner of Taupo Quay and Victoria Ave. Currently vacant, it had been a restaurant and bar. The other property is a two-storey building at 42 Victoria Ave. The ground floor is tenanted.
Other real estate agents are handling a number of other mortgagee sales.
Bayleys Wanganui handled yesterday's auction of a landmark two-storey homestead at 7 Somme Pde and another three-bedroom home at 99 Great North Rd.
Bayleys agent Dale Vanderhoof said the five-bedroom Somme Pde home, overlooking the Whanganui River, sold.
Mr Vanderhoof said it had a rateable value of $520,000 but sold for "considerably less than that".
He said bidding stopped well below rateable value of the Great North Rd home although negotiations were going on with a potential buyer.
While not able to give indicative prices for these homes, Mr Vanderhoof said mortgagee sales generally made between 50-60 per cent of the rateable value.
In recent weeks a series of public notices have appeared in the Chronicle notifying a number of mortgage defaults in the name of Torkan Afshar May, also known as Natasha May, "formerly of 7 Somme Pde but now of unknown address".
The mortgagees named so far include FM Custodians, Westpac NZ Ltd, Pepper New Zealand (Custodians) Ltd and Cressida Capital One Ltd.
As well as mortgage defaults the Wanganui District Council is owed almost $35,000 on properties across the city under the names of Torkan May, Salaheddin Takesh and The 3 Musketeers Ltd.
The bulk of that ($31,500) is unpaid rates and the rest is in lease costs associated with the 49 Taupo Quay property.
