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Heritage-listed Victorian beauty in Dunedin has triple income
With contrasting window facings and quoins, this brick Victorian house is a tribute to Dunedin’s heritage architecture.
Dunedin has some of this country’s most stunning Victorian brick houses, many now protected by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.
And this landmark property in High St is one of the most striking examples of the heritage architecture that has defined the city for nearly 150 years.
The house, which has a Historic Place Category 2 listing, is listed for sale. It’s now in three apartments, all tenanted. But it was originally a single home built in 1898 for Annie Forsyth Stevenson, the wife of Dunedin GP Dr Ralph Stephenson.
Alice Munro of Bayleys Dunedin, who has listed the property with Abbey Cochrane, describes the property as “just incredible”. “The owner is so passionate about the house. He has rented it fully furnished with all his beautiful things.”
Owner Don Corson confirms his passion to Stuff. “I was overseas when I was first told the house was on the market [back in 2012],” he says. “When I returned and visited, I could see the whole house was so much better than I had imagined. It was wonderful to discover it - it was just bathed in sunshine.
There is an inordinate amount of brick and stonework detailing in this house, which helps explain the Historic Place Category 2 listing.
The house has a twin-gable roof construction.
“The house was owned by monks, and there was a prayer room upstairs. They had done a huge amount of time-consuming interior work, relining all the walls and re-wiring, but it looked a bit of a mess on the outside.”
Corson says his father was born in the house next door, and there are multi-generational family links with other old houses in the centre of Dunedin. He remembers visiting the neighbouring property when he was very small.
He also says his interest in the Victorian heritage was sparked by a similar house over the road from where he lived as a child in Andersons Bay. It was owned by his great-aunt and -uncle, and he used to visit as a child. “That house was filled with treasures - boats in glass cases and stuffed birds. It was quite incredible.”
The original carved staircase is within Apartment A, the two-storey apartment at the front, which has four bedrooms.
This house in the city centre is in an area that was long associated with medical practitioners. Heritage NZ notes that after Dr Stephenson, the house was owned by two other doctors before becoming the offices for the New Zealand Engineering Coachbuilding, Aircraft and Related Trades’ Industrial Union of Workers.
“This area here was like the Harley Street of Dunedin,” Corson says. “My parents always referred to this house as Dr Fitzgerald’s place.”
The house was designed by leading architect James Louis Salmond, who designed more than 20 churches in Otago, and many private residences.
This sitting room is an extension of the massive main bedroom on the ground floor - the owner has furnished and decorated all the apartments.
This is part of the same room.
Key architectural features include the decorative brickwork with its contrasting window facings, quoins and tile roof.
Corson has not only cleaned up the exterior of the house, but also redecorated throughout. He has lived in all three apartments at different times.
But he is now selling because he is working on a new project across the harbour in Vauxhall - a 1940s rendered concrete build “virtually on a cliff”. “I have enough on my hands with that one, without managing the High St property as well,” he says.
Upstairs in Apartment A there’s an open-plan family living area. The kitchen is off to the left.
The three apartments in this house spread over 370m², and are rented for a combined total of $1710 a week.
Apartment A, the largest residence, is at the front of the house. It’s currently rented for $880 a week and has four bedrooms and one bathroom, with open-plan living on the upper level and expansive city views. Other special features of this apartment include the ornate carved staircase.
Apartment B, is described by the listing agents as a “calming, beautifully renovated apartment”. This one has two bedrooms and is on the lower level at the rear of the building. It is rented for $450 a week.
Apartment B has been beautifully renovated.
Apartment C, on the upper level at the rear, is a smaller one-bedroom apartment rented for $380 a week. The agents say this flat connects easily with Apartment A, providing an option for “an internally accessed self-contained studio or ... a five-bedroom residence with separate living spaces.”
It is well suited to multi-generational living and could also be completely reintegrated to create one extra-large family home. The agents say that the mixed-use zoning means there could be flexibility for future development, subject to appropriate consents.
Apartment C on the top floor could be linked to Apartment A to make one large five-bedroom home.
They also note that the property sits across two titles, one allotment of 314m² and the main parcel of 536m², with a combined landholding of 850m².
There’s a shared European-inspired courtyard that has been maintained with a pretty garden along the side of the house. There is parking at the rear for six vehicles.
The property, at 201 High St, City Centre, Dunedin will be auctioned on October 31, 2025. It was last sold in 2012, pre-renovation, for $515,000. Many of the furnishings are negotiable.
Flowers and hedging lines the pathway at the side of the house.
The concrete roof of the single garage provides the perfect place for a shared outdoor living area - there is additional parking at the rear of the property.
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