A piece of land nestled in Auckland’s Greenlane has been sitting unoccupied for more than a decade.

The lot, on Maungakiekie Ave, sits between multimillion-dollar properties, close to Auckland’s Southern Motorway and Cornwall Park.

Auckland Council has valued the properties surrounding it at between $3.7 and $5.1 million.

The land is owned by the Cornwall Park Trust Board and members of the Cornwall Park Leaseholders Association have said they have urged the board to sell the land on.

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David Glen, chairperson of the Cornwall Park Leaseholders Association, said the land had been empty since 2006.

No rent had been coming in to help with the cost of upkeep at Cornwall Park and the lot also cost the board to maintain.

Until 2006, Glen said, a house had occupied the site and been leased to an elderly woman, but the house had been falling into disrepair.

At that time, Glen said, the trust board purchased the leasehold interest of $125,000 for the 1029sqm property and demolished the house.

“They offered the land up to people with a $65,000 per annum rental, which they considered to be market rent at the time.

“But with no house, the land value equated to $1.3 million and there was no interest from anyone to pay $65,000 lease a year.”

Glen said the board decided to re-list the piece of land with a reduced rental of $45,000 per annum, but it still failed to attract any occupiers.

For the past 16 years, the board has had to pay to keep the lot maintained.

Glen said the leaseholders’ association estimated that was a total cost of more than $1 million on the property.

He said this was based on the purchase of lessees’ interest, demolition of the house, legal and real estate costs, loss of rental for 16 years at $45,000 per annum, rates for 16 years and maintenance for 16 years.

John Redwood, a spokesperson for the Cornwall Park Trust Board, said the land wasn’t for sale and had been gifted to the trust by John Logan Campbell.

Redwood said the board was currently “weighing up options” on what to do with the vacant lot and said the estimated cost the leaseholders came up with was “just that, an estimate”.

“Ground rents for leaseholders are set on a well established formula,” Redwood added.

Glen said he still believed if a “fair rent” had been offered for the land someone might have taken it.

“Then the board would have had 16 years of rent and no upkeep cost,” he said.

“There’s a lovely piece of land just sitting there not being used. They need to have a leasehold value that’s fair.”