By ANNE GIBSON
The $10.5 million receivership of a company which owns a prominent Auckland apartment tower has spurred the sale of more than half the block.
Metro City Apartments, which went into receivership in July, owns 64 apartments in the 109-unit block. The remaining 45 are owned by private investors.
Receiver David
Davidson, of PricewaterhouseCoopers, has told agent Colliers Jardine to sell the 64 unsold apartments as one job lot.
Agent Roger Seavill expects the block to fetch $6.5 million, giving an average sale price of just $100,000 for each of the studio and one-bedroom units.
Last year, a one-bedroom Metro unit fetched $195,000 in a healthier Auckland apartment market.
The $6.5 million expected from the sale will help offset the $10.5 million debts incurred on the block, at 82 Wakefield St, by its owner, Metro City Apartments.
Creditors are the Bank of New Zealand, owed $5.2 million; a group of South Island "mum and dad" investors, owed $3.5 million; the Hartford Group, owed $2.6 million; and trade creditors, owed $600,000.
The mum and dad investors bought into Canterbury Asset Management, a company controlled by Garry Lawrence, the majority owner of Metro City Apartments.
Mr Davidson said: "Garry Lawrence, through Canterbury Asset Management, owns all the share capital in Metro City Apartments."
Mr Seavill, of Colliers Jardine, said the 64 apartments would be sold as one block, although a buyer might eventually want to sell the apartments individually.
Mr Davidson said his advice had been that it was better to market the apartments as one block, at least initially.
"That's the way we've approached the market to start with.
"One of the reasons for the movement downwards in price expectations is that if the 64 apartments are sold as a block, tenanted and run as a business, then the sale may be GST exempt - that is, sold as a going concern.
"If the apartments are sold individually, then the price would have to include GST - that is, the price would be higher," Mr Davidson said.
The no-price tender is being marketed through Colliers' offices in Australia, Asia and the United States, closing on November 9.
The apartments for sale comprise 43 one-bedroom units and 21 studios where the lounge and bedroom are combined.
Mr Seavill said leases were short-term, ranging from one week to six months.
Six of the 64 apartments are vacant.
The other apartments have been let to tenants who are mainly students at Auckland University and the Auckland University of Technology.
Just how furnished the apartments are has yet to be determined.
"Under the loose Garry Lawrence arrangement, some tenants might have walked off with some of the bits and pieces, but the majority have TVs, furniture, linen, cutlery, etc."
Metro City Apartments were developed by Colin and Sean Lofts, but Mr Davidson said the Lofts no longer had any connection with the tower.
At the end of June, Mr Lawrence issued a notice to tenants, residents and guests, saying the Lofts had been barred from the tower.
"Colin and Sean Lofts have been issued with trespass notices and the police have been involved," Mr Lawrence wrote.
It was noted later that police involvement was not needed.
By ANNE GIBSON
The $10.5 million receivership of a company which owns a prominent Auckland apartment tower has spurred the sale of more than half the block.
Metro City Apartments, which went into receivership in July, owns 64 apartments in the 109-unit block. The remaining 45 are owned by private investors.
Receiver David
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