Snowhaven townhouse development at 2 Cobbon Crescent, Jindabyne sells at auction despite defects

In its current state, the building is required to either be demolished and rebuilt or rectified in order to be certified for occupation. Despite this, 29 bidders registered to bid on the block at 2 Cobbon Crescent on Tuesday.

Bidding kicked off at a modest $400,000 but within five minutes reached $1 million. The auctioneer announced the regional NSW property was on the market after a bid of $1,101,000 was placed.

Bidding moved quickly from there, with a mix of in-person, online and phone bidders vying for a chance to secure the site. The hammer fell after 20 minutes of bidding, with a local buyer the successful new owner.

The block of five townhouses, known as Snowhaven, was completed in 2008. It comprises one five-bedroom unit and four, three-bedroom units, plus basement parking for 11 cars.

Court documents state the townhouse owners became aware of building defects by 2011, which concerned "the proper classification of the building and hence the fire and life safety measures that should have been incorporated".

Residents moved out of the premises and the complex has been vacant since 2017. Several years of court proceedings between the owners corporation and the builder ensued.

A dispute then arose between the townhouse owners that was labelled "bitter and protracted" in a 2021 NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal Hearing.

As a result, the Supreme Court of NSW appointed independent trustees from BDO Australia to manage the sale of the property on behalf of the group of owners.

Stonebridge Property Group and Henley Property were appointed to auction off the property, which was marketed as a "unique development opportunity".

Builders from Sydney, Melbourne, Wollongong and Canberra were among the interested parties, as were local builders from the Snowy Mountains region.

Michael Henley of Henley Property said each of the bidders could see the potential of the block.

"It was 980-square-metre block, and blocks around Jindabyne are about that size, but I just think with the opportunity that was attached to it with the five apartments, you know, there's probably just under $5 million worth of retail real estate, once rectified, in the current market values," he said.

Mr Henley said it was likely the new owners would choose to rectify the complex.

"The factors were probably higher for it to be rectified than to be demolished," he said.

"With the cost of building these days, to build a five-apartment block of units you would probably be up for $3 million or $4 million. So the rectification is probably going to be at least half of that."

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The other appealing factor was that the existing development application was still current, saving the new owners time and money in the rectification process.

"They can modify the existing DA to rectify [the development] without having to do a whole new DA," he said.

Property prices in Jindabyne have skyrocketed in the past 12 months. The median for houses in the suburbs was $1,277,500 in December 2021, up from $760,000 the year prior and $605,000 in 2019.

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