Sellers of subdivided land from the former Hawthorn Estate development at the centre of resource consent controversy after last week's Environment Court ruling made the originally proposed water features mandatory, say their potential buyers were always made aware of the issue.
When asked by the Otago Daily Times, Ray White Queenstown principal Bas Smith said the properties they had marketed were never done so on the basis that ponds were optional.
"We were always aware that there may have been a requirement for ponding associated with Hawthorn, but that was obviously pending this court decision, so anyone that was considering purchasing was advised of that."
However, he said that might not have been the case in private sales that occurred for different parts of the 34ha property, which was bought and onsold by original developers Warwick Goldsmith and Fred van Brandenburg.
Ray White has marketed quite a few of the sites.
"From our perspective it's just business as usual. It's a massive pity in a lot of ways that such a beautiful block of land has been dogged by so much controversy and different opinions," Mr Smith said.
"We're still under instructions to sell the sites and people will be required to construct ponds by the look of it, but there's still a bit of conjecture about size of the ponds that are required and what actually constitutes a pond, so I think that that will all play out according to how the decision is interpreted."
The properties had been marketed at prices of between $650,000 and $750,000 for approximately 1ha sites, and Mr Smith thought the value of the land would increase after being developed.
"Now that we have the decision it will just be another addendum to the already quite extensive purchase agreement that goes alongside it, and I don't see this as detracting from the values ... it might solidify the values," he said.
"... water features as part of this project once it's completed will make it quite an incredible spectacle in years to come."
