- Noel Turner sold his 16ha Kai Iwi farm for $1.6m after failing to secure higher offers.
- Turner had planned to transform the farm into a water mine but shifted focus to the US.
- The new owner plans to renovate the villa and live on the property.
Kiwi entrepreneur Noel Turner has sold Turner New Zealand Water Estate for $1.6 million, taking a massive hit on the farm he once planned to transform into a water goldmine.
Start your property search
The Whanganui-born rich-lister sold his 16ha farm on Handley Road, in the small town of Kai Iwi, near Whanganui, despite earlier and unsuccessful attempts to sell it to an overseas firm for millions of dollars more.
The high-energy businessman, who now lives in Miami and introduces himself to international customers as “The King of New Zealand”, had planned to turn the farm into a water mine.
A local buyer plans to renovate the sprawling seven-bedroom villa, which has not been lived in for around a decade. Photo / Supplied
The property had an existing bore, which had attracted Turner to the site 30 years ago. Photo / Supplied
He bought the Handley Road property in 1996 and spent several years working with the council to get a resource consent to extract 220 million litres of water a year from the site. He planned to bottle and sell the naturally alkaline, silica-rich water to overseas markets.
Turner made his name selling green shell mussels to the US, marketing their anti-inflammatory properties to the nutraceutical sector. He found success with the Turner New Zealand Farms brand and created the health and wellness company Frezzor.
Turner New Zealand Water Estate was his next big thing, but by the time Turner got resource consent for the venture in 2018, his focus had shifted to the US and Europe with his food business.
Discover more:
- You can't come in: Night of drama at Jacinda Ardern's auction
- Jurassic Park in Remuera: 'I don't think you get much worse than this'
- Woofington’s castle from true crime doc up for mortgagee sale
He shelved his plans to open a water factory and started looking for a buyer for the rural property.
Klyne Real Estate sales manager Anshul Gupta told OneRoof that they had pitched the property to overseas beverage companies and international investors. Some had indicated they would be willing to pay $10m, but none bit in the end.
The listing described the farm as “New Zealand’s water goldmine” and promised an “exceptionally rare opportunity to secure one of New Zealand’s most valuable natural resource assets”.
Gupta said they eventually settled on an offer of $1.6m. The Kiwis buyers who had shown interest just wanted the house and land.
“It was a big drop, but [Turner] just wanted to sell – he had enough. He had no plans to open the factory. He wanted to focus more on his business in the US,” Gupta said.
“It still went over RV, but the real value of the property was the bore and the licence.”
The new owner is a farmer in the Manawatū-Whanganui region who plans to renovate the run-down seven-bedroom villa – which hasn’t been lived in for at least 10 years – and live on the lifestyle block.
“We couldn’t find that perfect buyer as we say in real estate, but maybe in the future he might try and do it again, sell it to someone else or who knows.”
Gupta said the unloading of his New Zealand assets would give Turner more time to focus on his next business venture, a restaurant chain in the US specialising in selling Turner’s organic NZ beef and NZ mussels.
The first Noel’s Kiwi Kitchen is due to open in Miami later this year.
- Click here to find more properties in Manawatu/Whanganui
