The Star: June 22, 2023

The Star Thursday June 22 2023
8
NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Classic apartment
Halswell tops
most viewed list
• By Catherine Masters
WHAT ARE the most searched
suburbs in the city in the first five
months of the year?
OneRoof data reveals eyes were
drawn especially to Halswell,
St Albans and Christchurch
Central, with Halswell gaining a
more than 100 per cent increase
in searches year-on-year.
Harcourts
Holmwood chief
executive Tony
Jenkins said
Halswell, where
the average value is
$827,000, has seen
Tony
Jenkins
a lot of subdivision
happening.
“Halswell is a
popular area. There’s been a lot
of section development. People
do like to live in Halswell and it’s
only a quick run into the city as
well so it’s a popular family area I
suppose you could call it.
“St Albans (average property
value $882,000) is a real market
that’s close to town, it’s a redevelopment
area, it’s probably affordable
for first-home buyers and it’s
probably an up-and-coming area
in terms of close to the city.”
Jenkins’ office has a number
of development properties
on the market in St Albans,
and OneRoof records show
the biggest settled sale in
Christchurch so far this year
was there with $3.05m paid for a
property in Knowles St.
Christchurch Central, where
the average value is $655,000,
is looking “pretty sharp”, said
Jenkins, after the earthquake
rebuild.
“That’s probably why you’re
getting a lot of interest in the
inner city. People are realising
there’s good facilities in town
now. There’s good restaurants,
good shopping and people are
looking at can they buy an
apartment or whatever the case
may be.”
– NZ Herald
once dubbed the
• By NIkki Preston
AN APARTMENT in a block
of flats designed by Sir Miles
Warren that was once labelled
Christchurch’s ugliest building
is now publicly for sale for the
first time since 1956.
The owners of the Dorset
Street Flats have finally finished
restoring the property, a
category 1 heritage-protected
building, after it was significantly
damaged in the February
22, 2011 earthquake.
The property is to be
auctioned next Thursday.
Warren built the block of
eight flats for himself and three
friends, including Michael
Weston who was the original
owner of 14 Dorset St in
1956.
The friends lived in the
ground-floor flats with
courtyards and owned a second
upstairs flat for rental income.
The flats were considered
extremely radical at the time
and, according to historic
records, were nicknamed “one
of the ugliest buildings in the
MODERNIST MILESTONE: A downstairs unit in Sir Miles
Warren’s iconic Dorset Street Flats is for sale.
PHOTOS: NEW HERALD
city” and “Fort Dorset”.
But Warren’s design went
on to inspire a whole new era
of architecture and was hailed
for setting new architectural,
social and aesthetic standards
for residential buildings in New
Zealand.
The Dorset Street Flats was
one of the first attempts at
constructing a building from
load-bearing concrete block and
is recognised as one of the most
important Modern movement
buildings.
First National listing
agent Katharine Burrell said
the owners had been given
the option to demolish the
flats due to the significant
damage sustained during the
earthquake.
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