Buy scenic village in New Zealand for $2.8m!

• It is surrounded by lush mountains and has eight, three-bedroom homes, a restaurant, a lodge etc.

This scenic village on the edge of Waitaki dam in South Island, New Zealand, is up for sale $2.8m (Dh10 million approx). Built in the 1930s, Lake Waitaki village was once home to 40 staff and their families and a hub of activity for the 1,200 dam labourers.

However, in 1989 the dam's operation was automated and since then the village has been lying abandoned. It is surrounded by lush mountains and has eight, three-bedroom homes, a restaurant, a lodge, water rights, nine garages and 14 hectares of land. Waitaki is one of many small communities of New Zealand that have struggled to keep their tradition alive amidst urbanisation. An estate agent, Kelli Milmine, said Lake Waitaki village has received "heaps" of interest with buyers wanting to create a boutique farm, a tourism venture or a communal living arrangement for their friends and family. She added that the whopping price tag on the village was the reason locals showed little interest with domestic buyers ready to shell out NZD $1 million.

The Labour-led government in New Zealand has reserved a billion dollars a year for the regional development fund to revitalise the regions by attracting people back from the cities. Lake Waitaki was sold to several buyers over the years before the state sold it to a private buyer in 1991.

However, only last week the New Zealand government announced a ban on foreign buyers to stop them from buying existing residential homes. The move was driven to offer New Zealanders a chance to purchase and live in such properties.

Following the ban, an estate agent, Kelli Milmine, said it was hard to tell which prospective buyers were domestic and which were international, because foreign buyers had started using New Zealand intermediaries to make enquiries. Some Chinese nationals had expressed interest, she added.

To ease matters, trusts and companies registered outside New Zealand or those which are 25 per cent foreign owned, will be treated as foreign individuals and can only purchase land or non-residential properties through the overseas investment office.

However, an overseas buyer can still buy residential property if they are residents of New Zealand and intend to live in the property as their main home for 183 days of each year, according to reports in MSN.