The Hone Tuwhare Charitable Trust confirmed yesterday that an Auckland-based charity had stepped in to save the crib from being sold on the open market.
"It's a terrific result. We couldn't have hoped for a better scenario," trust chairman Matt Shirtcliffe told the Otago Daily Times yesterday.
Tuwhare's family had been reluctantly preparing to place the crib on the open market, when the Takutai Trust offered to buy the property on behalf of the trust, Mr Shirtcliffe said.
"It's a private family trust, with strong connections to the South Island, which was started purely for philanthropic works. They saw the media coverage and they genuinely just love Hone's story.
"They're passionate about what Hone stood for, in terms of his self-expression, literacy and love of people."
It would cost an estimated $350,000 to $500,000 to complete the renovations, he said.
"Now the ownership is settled, we can start working on a full restoration of the crib and turn it into a purpose-built writer's residence.
"There's still a lot of work to be done. In the next three months, we'll draft design plans and consult with writers. The plan is to do a sympathetic rebuild. We'll pull it apart and completely rebuild it."
Tuwhare lived the last 16 years of his life in the weatherboard, one-bedroomed seaside crib, after moving to Kaka Point in 1992.
The 1969 and 1974 University of Otago Robert Burns Fellow and 1999 New Zealand Te Mata Poet Laureate died in Dunedin, aged 85, in January 2008.
The trust was established last July to buy the property but, despite a successful "Koha for the Crib" benefit concert in Auckland, which included Dunedin musicians Martin Phillipps and David Kilgour, it failed to raise the necessary funds for the initiative.
In December, Tuwhare's son, Rob Tuwhare, told the ODT he had "conceded defeat" in the bid to establish a writer's residency at the crib.
Mr Tuwhare said yesterday it was "a wonderful outcome".
"It's fantastic to know that Dad's crib will definitely continue to be a place to nurture and inspire New Zealanders from all walks of life," he said.
"I just think Dad would love it if people were going down there to write and be inspired by what he was.
"It's a bit of a gem. It's a very special corner of the world," he said.
The Takutai Trust is a private family trust and not connected to the working name of the Maori Aquaculture Settlement Trust, which is also called the Takutai Trust.
