- Kim Dotcom is renting a luxury property near Omaha, previously bought for $8.6m in 2023.
- Dotcom left Queenstown amid legal battles over his extradition to the US and his Queenstown mansion.
- The Glenorchy property, linked to a legal dispute with Roger Ver, is on the market for sale.
The New Zealand Herald reported this week that Kim Dotcom is renting a luxury property near the rich-lister beach town of Omaha.
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OneRoof profiled the home when it hit the market a year ago and can reveal what comforts the under-fire tech entrepreneur is enjoying.
The 2.2ha waterfront spread was bought by the owners in 2023 for $8.6 million.
They told OneRoof last year that they were selling after setting their sights on a much larger country estate.
Before listing, though, they had completed a makeover of the house, which has its own cable car down to the beach below and boasts gardens and a pool area by top Australian landscaper Paul Bangay.
Kim Dotcom with his wife Elizabeth. The pair are linked to trophy homes in Queenstown and Auckland. Photo / Supplied
The luxury home Dotcom is reportedly renting has a pool and a cable car down to the beach. Photo / Supplied
The house and separate garage were re-roofed, and the main living area was opened up with architectural ceilings, skylights and handcrafted wall panelling, oak floors and a striking pink travertine kitchen island.
The couple told OneRoof their favourite spot was the wood fireplace, but they also tucked in an office and scullery at one end of the huge space that opens to the deck and pool, with a media room at the other.
The finished house, with its covered verandas and pitched roof, looked like a Hawaiian resort, one of the owners said. “The cool thing is the approach to the property, which is a drive through this fantastic native bush, a bit like Huka Lodge, and you come out and look straight out over the ocean.”
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The property, which has an RV of $9.25m, was withdrawn from sale in May of this year and rented out to Dotcom, via an agency.
The New Zealand Herald reported that Dotcom had left Queenstown and was living in Auckland as he tries to fight his extradition to the US on charges of racketeering conspiracy, copyright-related offending and alleged wire fraud.
Dotcom, who denies wrongdoing, is seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith’s decision to surrender him to the US.
His latest travails also follow a stroke in 2024 and legal fights over his multimillion-dollar Queenstown mansion.
The kitchen at the Dotcom rental features a pink travertine, and has a scullery tucked to one side. Photo / Supplied
Landscaping was done by Australian star Paul Bangay. Photo / Supplied
The master suite has sea and sunrise views. Photo / Supplied
OneRoof reported last month that Dotcom and his wife, Elizabeth, were no longer living at the five-bedroom lodge at 25 Mount Alfred Ridge, in Glenorchy.
The property, which has an RV of $16m and boasts stunning views of the mountains and Lake Wakatipu, is currently on the market for sale.
Advertising for the house notes that images have been digitally staged and that some of the exterior images are from earlier shoots.
The luxury property last sold in 2021 for $15.1m and is owned by American Dream, a company controlled by Elizabeth.
The New Zealand Herald reported in November last year that the house was mortgaged to wealthy crypto-evangelist Roger Ver, also known online as “Bitcoin Jesus”.
The five-bedroom home on Mount Alfred Ridge, in Glenorchy, hit the market at the end of last year. Photo / Supplied
The Queenstown house is packed with luxury features, but some of the listing photos include digital staging. Photo / Supplied
The dispute over the mortgage registered to the property was the subject of a high court dispute. Photo / Supplied
Business Desk reported last month that the High Court had ordered Dotcom to register the mortgage with Ver. Dotcom had opposed Ver’s claim, saying Ver had reneged on a deal to invest in one of Dotcom’s businesses.
The site said that, according to court documents, Ver had loaned $15m to American Dream to fund the purchase of the Glenorchy property, “under an agreement that included a clause giving Ver the right to register a mortgage as security”.
New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty agent David Penrose, who is marketing the property for sale by negotiation, declined to comment on the case when approached by OneRoof. It is unclear who is selling 25 Mount Alfred Ridge or the reason for its sale.
Dotcom has sought out expensive and palatial properties since arriving in New Zealand in 2009, most notably the $30m rented mansion in Coatesville where he was arrested in 2012 after an airborne assault carried out by elite anti-terrorist officers from the police’s Special Tactics Group.
The Coatesville mansion, formerly occupied by Dotcom, was bought by the owners of Zuru Toys in 2016 for $32.5m. Photo / Supplied
The four-bedroom Dunedin mansion that Dotcom denied buying. It is now back on the market for sale. Photo / Supplied
The raid was part of a worldwide FBI operation to take down Dotcom’s Megaupload file-sharing website, which was claimed to be at the centre of a massive criminal copyright operation. The home subsequently sold to the Zuru Toys magnates, siblings Anna, Mat and Nick Mowbray, in 2016 for $32.5m.
Earlier last year, Dotcom denied reports he had acquired one of Dunedin’s “most-admired” mansions. Stuff Digital reported that the internet entrepreneur had bought the Mosgiel property, which had been on the market for sale for more than two years.
However, Dotcom told OneRoof via text message in April that he did not own the property. “I have not purchased a property in Bush Road, I just live there for my stroke recovery,” the text said.
The five-bedroom US-style home at 207 Bush Road, in Mosgiel, has since returned to market with an asking price of $3.1m.
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