- Multiple foreign billionaires are interested in Manawaora, a $100m-plus coastal estate in Russell.
- The 487ha property includes two houses, helicopter pads, a landing strip, and a private jetty.
- Potential foreign buyers must apply through the Overseas Investment Office to purchase the estate.
Multiple foreign billionaires have been inquiring about Manawaora, a large coastal estate for sale in Russell. Who they are, listing agent John Greenwood can’t say, but that mere mortals might recognise the odd name amongst them.
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Asked how he handles billionaires, the waterfront and lifestyle expert for Bayleys replied: “Carefully.”
“The ask, which is public knowledge, is in excess of $100 million, and that by itself attracts a totally different buyer,” he told OneRoof.
Manawaora is 487ha in size, spans 14 titles and boasts two “magnificent” houses. “It’s in the golden mile of the Bay of Islands.”
Whoever buys the property will be in the company of other rich listers who own in the area, but if they are a foreign buyer, they will have to go through the Overseas Investment Office process to enable them to purchase, Greenwood said.
“The foreigners at the level that this is, which is right up there, they know, and the vendor knows, that they will have to apply for OIO.”
The mega-estate’s 2.8km of riparian coastline makes this a playground for water lovers. Photo / Supplied
The beach house, located 2.5km from the main clifftop residence, wraps around two pools. Photo / Supplied
The interest, which has been strong, is coming mainly from offshore, Greenwood said, with the billionaires hailing from America, Singapore and Europe.
There’s not a chance Greenwood will name-drop any of them: “We’re under total confidentiality with all that.
“It’s the golden rule. He who has the gold makes the rules, so they tell you when they will look, how they will look.”
The property has two helicopter pads and a private 300m fixed-wing landing strip, and, yes, Greenwood said some interested parties were flying in for a look.
Manawaora is still a functioning farm and also has a farm manager, a farmhouse and barns, supplemented by caretakers and a caretaker’s house
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The listing by Greenwood, and colleague Irene Bremner, states the coastal estate blends luxury, privacy and natural beauty and is under careful environmental stewardship.
“A private 6km road winds through lakes, native bush, and wildlife to a stunning 540sqm headland residence designed by Italian architect Misa Poggi," it says.
“With panoramic sea views, seamless indoor and outdoor living, and a pool overlooking the forest canopy, this retreat captures the essence of the Bay of Islands.”
There’s also a bespoke beach house with twin pools; a boatshed; a private jetty and 2.8km of coastline.
The vendor worked hard to restore the estate, through conservation and regenerative planting of native bush. Photo / Supplied
Bayleys agent John Greenwood says this is a true retreat in every sense of the word. Photo / Supplied
Probably the nearest comparison would be the sale of 300ha Carey Bay farm on Waiheke Island, which Bayleys sold in 2021 to Mainfreight chairman Bruce Plested for $72m.
OneRoof reported at the time that the property had around 5km of private coastline and was one of the biggest parcels of land to have come on the market in the Auckland region in years.
While the property had been earmarked for development, Plested said he intended to protect the land. “I just think it’s one of most beautiful properties on earth. It’s very special, and we would like to leave it very much in its natural state.”
It remains to be seen how long Manawaora takes to sell, but Greenwood recently sold another, albeit smaller, property, on 10.15ha at Whangarei Heads, after nearly five years on the market.
Greenwood said when he first launched Kauri Mountain Point, the market was unbelievably strong but then Covid arrived.
“When we were released from jail [lockdown], all the high net worth individuals took their families skiing in Japan, Canada and Europe, and they really enjoyed that, so they rebooked for the following year. When they came home, beach and lineage properties were no longer on the shopping list.
Greenwood recently sold Kauri Mountain Point, in Northland, for around $5.5m. Photo / Supplied
“I used to send out my emails about this time every year to my database and I wasn’t getting any response back other than, ‘Thanks Greenie, that’s great, please keep it all coming, I want to know what’s on the market but have you got anything in Queenstown?’
“The only place the kids will go now is Queenstown. It’s really killed the market in that top end for beachfront and lineage properties. There’s been a whole mental shift on what holidays are all about.”
Greenwood said he can’t comment on whether the buyer for Kauri Mountain Point is from New Zealand, but added the property had been marketed in the $5.5m to $6m range, and sold in that range.
The property, owned by Kiwi financier John Fulton, was first listed for $8.5m, which could have been a bit too high, Greenwood said.
“It was just the wrong time of the market.”
He adds: “Once it’s overpriced and that property has been on the market for too long, it never gets to what it should have been priced with to start with. It will always be discounted.”
When OneRoof first wrote about the property, the agent talked about expats buying it sight unseen, but that never happened. “It was very close to the crash, and it fell off,” Greenwood said.
The property, which is currently run as a luxury retreat, has been sold as a going concern, and Greenwood understood the intention is to keep it that way.
OneRoof profile of the property when it launched described how the property featured two luxury dwellings, one of which was rented out to guests through a boutique company for more than $2000 a night.
The main residence, Te Whara, was a three-bedroom sturdy rural shed-like structure designed by noted Kiwi architect Andrew Patterson, and a one-bedroom lodge, called the Glasshouse, was designed by Paul Clarke of Studio2 Architects in 2010.
Fulton, at the time, was waiting out Covid on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza and had decided to sell because the pandemic had made international travel all but impossible.
Fulton described being smitten when he first saw the property in 2015: “It wasn’t even a sunny day. In fact, there was a major tropical cyclone happening, but even in the wind and rain the rugged landscape and the views towards Great Barrier, Little Barrier and the Bay of Islands were so magnificent I decided then and there to buy it.”
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