Park up and explore your options with this grand old Epsom villa

The property at 688 Epsom Rd backs on to One Tree Hill Domain. Photo / Supplied

One of the few remaining large residential development sites along Manukau Rd at the edge of One Tree Hill domain is up for sale for the first time in 14 years with holding income in place from the rest home business that has occupied it for several decades.

Bayleys Auckland's Nicolas Ching says the 1562sq m property at 668 Manukau Rd, Epsom, known as the Oak Park Residential Home, could potentially hold up to seven homes under the existing 7A Residential Activity zoning which allows for one unit per 200sq m. Alternatively, he says the property could continue to be operated as a rest home for the elderly or adapted for a variety of other uses.

Ching is marketing the rest home in conjunction with Harry Cheng and Cheryl Regan, also of Bayleys Auckland and it will be auctioned on May 26 in Bayleys' central Auckland auction rooms unless sold prior to that date.

"A new owner will receive rental income of $102,500 per annum up until December when the Oak Park residential care business is moved by the vendor to larger, purpose-built premises in Mt Albert," Ching says.

"This will give a purchaser time to draw up plans for the site and make application for any planning or building approvals that might be require before the complex is vacated."

Ching says the property currently accommodates an old character villa, originally a grand old residential homestead, that has been converted and extended to make way for a, 20-bed care facility for the elderly.

"Over the years, residents have enjoyed the magnificent outlook from the wraparound veranda on to the park next door, as well as the convenience of a location handy to the CBD, Greenwoods Corner and Royal Oak shops up the road," Ching says.

"It is an almost flat, easy walk to the shops and the park and nearly every professional business from doctors' surgeries to dentists and law firms are within easy reach.

"It's not often that such a large, high profile property with so many future options like the Oak Park home comes up for sale and whoever buys the site can take advantage of the undoubted potential it has given its strategic location"

Ching says a new owner could apply for planning permission to run their own rest home business from the site using existing facilities which are all up to standard, including fire protection measures.

"The property could be used for anything from another rest home to a medical centre, motel, boarding house or childcare facility, or developed into residential units."

He says the property has many attributes that make it special. Set back from the road behind an old ginkgo tree in a pretty garden, the rest home is set in picturesque surroundings right next to the adjoining park and with a children's playground next door.

The original homestead has been expanded over the years and the complex now has a total floor area of 388sq m and comprises two interconnected rectangular buildings.