Will this villa on Southland Rd, Hastings, find someone to give it a new place to live? Photo / Warren Buckland
Will this villa on Southland Rd, Hastings, find someone to give it a new place to live? Photo / Warren Buckland
OPINION:
There’s a house up for grabs. It’s free. That’s not something you read about every day.
The Tudor-style villa in Southland Rd in Hastings will be a familiar sight to many people in the region. It’s near the racecourse and its two-storey structure towers above the fence line.
It’s been there for a very long time —113 years.
If only walls could talk. Imagine how many families have walked the floors and slept under its roof.
Unfortunately, it is in a sad state of affairs now, according to the developers who want it off the site so they can subdivide and build 10 two-bedroom homes in its place. The house was purchased for this purpose by Group Raureka Ltd for $1.86 million in June last year.
That the house has decayed is a shame really, as it once had heritage value.
But its removal means, that piece of land will go from housing maybe 10 people in the early 1900s, they had big families back then, to 20 to 60 people in the 2020s.
The land will need enough infrastructure to cope with it.
Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today. Photo / Warren Buckland
Water supply, sewer, electricity to each new site, driveways for at least 10 cars to go in and out — the list goes on.
I know we need new homes — desperately. People living in cars and motel rooms need a place to call home.
The fact that some children have lived most of their lives in a motel room is a blight on both the National and Labour governments.
The problem has been building for years and now we are asking overseas tourists to come to New Zealand and spend their money again, what is going to happen to the families living in the motels needed for them?
It is such a mess with little hope of a quick solution.
New Zealand has jammed itself into a right mess. Building more houses all over the show is not the answer and Cyclone Gabrielle made that clear in Hawke’s Bay in particular.
Many, many more are coming. On the same day as the Southland Rd news, we heard there were now 800 homes planned for a new suburb called Mission Hills out the back of Napier.
Careful planning, and consideration of our environment, is more important than ever.
Anyway, I digress. At the moment, the developer at Southland Rd, TW Property, has offered $50,000 to help with the removal of the villa.
Understandably there has been huge interest in it with hundreds of comments on HB Today’s Facebook page.
By all accounts, it’s in a pretty run-down state and will cost more than a few pretty pennies to make it inhabitable, but wouldn’t it be cool if it ended up being a beautiful family home or a place where people could meet? The options are endless — however, I’m picking money will be the deciding factor in her future.
I hope someone can save her.
- Linda Hall is assistant editor @Hawke’s Bay Today
