Cornwall Park tenants seek way around rent rise

Lindo Ferguson

Homeowners in some of the five streets bordering Cornwall Park in Auckland want to pay for their properties now and avoid exorbitant rent rises.

Maungakiekie Ave lessees Penny Lillie and Grant Murray said residents were talking about putting a case to the Cornwall Park Trust Board, which holds titles throughout Epsom, Greenlane, One Tree Hill and Royal Oak.

But board chairman Dr Lindo Ferguson firmly rejected the idea, saying the trustees' policy was not to freehold any titles. Although the board had sold leasehold titles some years ago, there was no chance this would be repeated, he said.

Rents on 27 of the board's 119 sections are under review after being frozen for 21 years. The board owns sections on Campbell Rd, Wheturangi Rd and Maungakiekie Ave on the One Tree Hill/Greenlane side and Market Rd and Manukau Rd on the Royal Oak/Epsom side.

Most of the land abuts Cornwall Park, although some titles in the five streets are freehold.

Penny Lillie is wondering about rent increases on her family's leasehold property. The section was valued at $130,000 in the early 1990s when she had the chance to buy the freehold.

But she was unable to take up the offer at the time.

Payments on the 21-year lease were $500 a year when she moved to the street.

When the lease was renewed in the mid-1990s, the bill rose to $10,000 a year, she said, where it remains.

The house and land was now worth $700,000 to $800,000 but its value was declining as the rent review period drew nearer, she said.

"I would hate to think what it would be valued at in 10 years' time, if land values keep going up," she said.

The board was valuing some sections at $700,000, hence the annual rental demands of $30,000-plus, calculated at 5 per cent of a section's market value.

Properties attracting such steep leasehold payments were not the highly desirable Maungakiekie Ave blocks backing on to the park and enjoying panoramic pastoral views, she said.

Nearby resident Sue Roche is breathing a sigh of relief. She is one of a small group of Maungakiekie Ave residents who freeholded sections. When she moved into the street in 1971, the annual leasehold rent on the property was just $2000.

But in the early 1980s, she recalls how the board hit financial trouble and offered lessees freehold to generate cash. So $28,000 cleared the title on the section.

"It was extraordinary," she said of the opportunity to own the property outright.

"It was a tiny window that was opened up." A few other neighbours in the street took up the chance, although most could not afford it.

She has noticed some properties in the area deteriorating as elderly homeowners facing steep rent hikes are forced to defer maintenance.

Mr Murray said the Cornwall Park Trust Board was sitting on a gold mine, after rents were renewed.

He said the ground rent on his Maungakiekie Ave property rose from $1800 a year to $34,500 in 2003 - in one hit.