Just seven months after being conditionally sold for about $625,000, the property is now advertised for $40,000 less by Bayleys real estate.
Agent Bev Walker said she was instructed by the Crown to sell it for $585,000 but she could not divulge further sale information about the property, which was previously confiscated from Swann.
On behalf of the Crown, Ministry of Economic Development communications adviser Alastair Stewart said the sale had not gone ahead and accordingly the agreement was cancelled.
Arrangements regarding individual sale agreements were private and could not be disclosed, he said. The reduced asking price reflected a changed market.
The seven-bedroom, two-bathroom lodge is expected to sell quickly and potential buyers last year had already registered their renewed interest.
It sold within weeks of being advertised in late July, after the Crown put a price on the home following a failed auction and exhaustive negotiations.
The property was put on the market after the High Court ordered forfeiture of at least $2.5 million of seized goods belonging to Swann family trusts.
At the time, Ferntree Lodge's government valuation was $905,000. Its Dunedin City Council (DCC) rateable value remains $907,000.
Bidding at last year's July 12 auction started at $350,000 and reached $450,000, which was below the Crown's reserve. The property was then passed in.
"There's been a lot of interest already - as soon as it went on the internet," Ms Walker said yesterday.
Viewing is by appointment only.
The hopeful buyer, who was not from Dunedin, had planned to restore the lodge as their home, Ms Walker said in August.
Since then "not much has changed" at the property, she said.
Some repair was still required at the lodge, which consists of an original 1849 pioneer cottage and mock-Tudor house built in 1902.
The home sits within 6630sq m of garden and has four living rooms, a study, library, two dining rooms, a billiard room and four-car garaging.
It features stained-glass windows, sculptured plaster ceilings, handsome fireplaces and a beautiful central staircase, Bayleys' listing says.
Ferntree Lodge is said to be Dunedin's oldest surviving house and the only ferntree house still occupied in New Zealand.
It was built just one year after Dunedin was settled and was the Thompson family's home for more than 60 years.
In the early 1900s the house was converted into two separate homes which were linked by a billiards room and a shared entrance.
It was changed from a five-bedroom cottage to a 20-room house, but in the 1970s the property fell into disrepair after a failed bid to turn it into a tavern complex.
The DCC came to its rescue in 1980, upgrading it to its original state.
