Own your own town

Remote Southern Alps township Otira, population 44 is for sale. Selling for $1 million, the deal includes a hotel, fire station, town hall and 18 houses. The Otira Hotel, which started life as a coaching stop on the alpine pass in the 186s, is the only place for miles around to find a bed, beer or meal, and also doubles as the post office. Almost all the buildings are made of wood, most pre-framed and assembled on site when the town was established as a base for railway and road construction in the 192s. Potential buyers have the option of taking the hotel only or the whole town. Bill and Christine Hennah, the current owners, have put Otira up for sale on Trade Me. The couple themselves bought 3445ft high-Otira in 1998 after they had passed through while on holiday and “felt sorry for it”. “The ideal buyers would be a reasonably young couple, perhaps 4-ish, with their children having moved on, or maybe a grown-up child left to help them out.”