The asking price for the old Wanaka Primary School has been reduced by the Ministry of Education, after the latest offers to buy the property fell through.
A Ministry spokesperson said two recent offers on the retired school's remaining two blocks of land and buildings, which were being considered by the Ministry and Land Information New Zealand, had not proceeded.
"The deals fell through after acceptable conditional offers were made but before any contract was signed," the spokesperson said.
A separate earlier conditional offer from an unnamed New Zealand investor also fell through at the end of June. That potential buyer had been in talks with an Auckland group which was keen to establish a private school at the site, using the existing classrooms and buildings.
The ministry said in August the properties were on the open market, as part of the standard disposal process for Crown-owned property, at $3.6 million plus GST for the main school block, and $300,000 plus GST for the other smaller site.
Yesterday, it said the main block had been reduced in price to $3.25 million plus GST, and the other remained at $300,000 plus GST.
As at July 1, 2011, the combined quotable value of the two school properties was $2.475 million, including GST.
APL Property valuer Ken Goldfinch was not surprised the school property was taking some time to sell.
"The fact three offers have fallen over is indicative of the difficult times ... our developers are going through and there's just no appetite at the moment for vacant land suitable for development.
"The Wanaka population isn't growing, there's established subdivisions at Peninsula Bay and Riverside Park and West Meadows and Timsfield, and there's not a lot of sections selling."
