The two-bedroom, 70sq m cottage at 159 Lakeside Rd is believed to have been built in the 1880s. It was originally owned by the Templeton family, early Upper Clutha settlers.
The cottage remained in the Templeton family - which still owns Templeton and Sons Engineering at Albert Town, the oldest business operating in the district - for nearly a century, before Owen and Ellen Templeton sold it in 1982, after 42 years of ownership.
Bayleys Wanaka director Mat Andrews, who is marketing the property, said current owner Dr Charles Briscoe, who had owned the cottage for 23 years, recently returned with his wife from a 15-year sabbatical in the Chatham Islands to live in Queenstown. The property was rented during that time.
The couple had attended the auction of a two-bedroom, 30-year-old cottage at 177 Lakeside Rd which sold to a Christchurch couple for $1.1 million in April, and decided to sell their cottage to invest in Queenstown.
Since it was put on the market four weeks ago, there had been strong interest from Otago and Canterbury buyers in the property, which has a rateable value of $720,000. The building was not heritage-listed, so had development potential, Mr Andrews said.
"Opportunities to purchase property in this part of the town do not come up often, nor does the opportunity to take on a piece of Wanaka's history," Mr Andrews said.
"The closeness to Lake Wanaka, as well as being just 900m from the centre of town, is obviously a key factor in the appeal of the property, as is the large 721sq m section."
He said the Lakeside Rd area was popular with Wanaka's early settlers as it was sheltered from the prevailing wind that came down the lake and also caught the last of the sun.
The cottage will be auctioned on July 7.
