The former tinnie house where Christchurch teen Hayden Miles was allegedly brutally murdered is up for sale.

The ramshackle Linwood property is being sold for $429,000 and is being billed as a “spectacular villa”.

Miles’ remains were found at nearby Ruru Lawn Cemetery last December after a four-month missing persons hunt turned into a murder inquiry.

Police forensically scoured the Cashel St property where they believed “an incident of interest” occurred on August 22, last year, the day the 15-year-old disappeared.

Gavin Gosnell, 27, was arrested soon after and charged with murder. He will stand trial later in the year.

It is the latest house of horrors to go on the market in a region that’s suffered nine homicides in just the last 10 months.

Over the past 16 years, the Canterbury region has averaged just over five murders a year.

And the Cashel St property is not the only home tainted with a grisly past that is currently up for sale in Christchurch.

The Waltham home where 65-year-old Ken Moore was bashed to death by his cricket-bat wielding defacto step-son Chris Gleeson is also on the market. It’s being sold for $229,00 and has been described by estate agents as being “neat as a pin”.

The Aranui property where Jason Somerville slayed his wife Rebecca and neighbour Tisha Lowry before burying them under the floorboards is also for sale, offers around $55,000.

The city council is considering putting in an offer to buy the section on the corner of Hampshire St and Wainoni Rd.

But its North Island-based owners – who’ve described owning the infamous site as a “nightmare” – have been waiting over a year for the council to act.

Last week’s homicide inquiry centred on a earthquake-damaged flat in Travis Rd, Burwood, where a woman’s body was found.

A 29-year-old Kaiapoi farmhand has been charged with the as yet unnamed woman’s murder and has appeared in court.

But that property is also on the market.

The estate agent selling the Hayden Miles house says she wished she knew the five-bedroom, five-bathroom property’s gruesome past before she took the job on.

“Even the tenants didn’t mention it, which was what made it so bizarre,” said Vicki Tahau Paton, director of her self-titled real estate firm.

Within a fortnight of the place being on the market, a potential buyer pointed out that an alleged murder had taken place in one of the five flats.

Since then, she has told every interested party of its bloody past.

“I was a bit disappointed I wasn’t made aware of it at the time,” Ms Tahau Paton said.

“But I’m now telling everyone of its past as I understand it’s a legal requirement to do so.

“People have a right to know. But
to be honest, there’s a lot of
agents that wouldn’t do that.”

Real Estate Institute New Zea
land Canterbury regional director
Tony McPherson said estate
agents have a duty to disclose a
house’s history.

“It’s a question we have asked
before,” said Mr McPherson of
Ray White McPherson Group.

“Our professional indemnity
insurers couldn’t find a case in
New Zealand (around disclosure
in relation to property) but quoted
an American case where it was
upheld where it should be
disclosed.

“Best practice would be to
always inform any prospective
buyers of a property’s history.”

While the Miles’ house might
be too fresh in the memory for a
lot of Cantabarians to move into,
Ms Tahau Paton said most of the
interest so far has come from
investors eyeing its potential
rental income.

“No emotion comes into their
purchases, it’s straight rental re
turn,” she said.

She described the Cashel St
property as “a very nice home”
which simply requires a
makeover.

“It needs work, but this was
not a place where you walk in and
think, `Eek, what’s been going on
here’.

“It’s unfortunate that it has
had this history, but it’s just one
of those things.”