The Dunedin City Council is happy with the price it has received from the sale of two land packages in Roslyn, which sold over their valuation despite a depressed market.
The two properties, sold by auction this week, were some of the last of the city's leasehold land that it has been selling for the past few years.
One of the properties is the Roslyn shopping centre, and the other a health centre nearby.
Council property manager Robert Clark said despite interest from as far away as Fiji, both properties went to "very astute Dunedin investors".
The 4344sq m shopping centre property sold for $1.15 million, and had a recent market valuation of close to $900,000, while a smaller property, with a valuation of $380,000, went for $470,000.
The shopping centre had a yield of 4.4%, and the other property 3.98%.
Mr Clark said the result was "without doubt" a situation of people looking for safe investments in a recession environment.
There were also limited sites of that nature on Highgate, which could make attractive developments in the future.
The council owns a large portfolio of land that was vested in it in the 1860s and 1870s, and since 2003 the property department has been managing its portfolio more aggressively to increase its dividend, selling low-yield properties and reinvesting in others with higher yields.
