- A 1.5ha Auckland site, linked to Donghua Liu, is partially back on the market.
- Properties on Gillies Avenue and Edgerley Avenue are listed, with a combined RV of $19.13m.
- The site, undeveloped for over 20 years, was previously reported sold.
It’s a 1.5ha block of prime Auckland real estate that hit the headlines in May after it reportedly sold to a mystery buyer. Except the listing agent denies there’s a story, and now part of the holding is back on the market for sale.
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Three homes and a vacant section from the development site next to Westfield’s Newmarket mall are up for grabs, as questions linger about the alleged mega sale.
The properties are part of a block that has remained undeveloped for over 20 years, and according to records seen by OneRoof, are owned by two companies related to property developer Donghua Liu: Roncon Pacific Hotel Management Holdings Ltd and Roncon Pacific Hotel Management Holdings 2 Ltd.
Also on the market, for $8.8m, are two neighbouring properties at 4 and 6 Edgerley Avenue. Photo / Supplied
The four properties were part of a 1.5ha block that has remained undeveloped for more than 20 years. Photo / Supplied
The house at 74 Gillies Avenue and the adjacent empty section at 76 Gillies Avenue are being sold together by Barfoot & Thompson agents John Zhang and Louissa Bao, who previously had the listing for the 1.5ha block for seven months it was withdrawn in May. The two properties have a combined RV of $9.85m and re-hit the market on September 5.
The second offering, two homes at 4 and 6 Edgerley Avenue, have been listed for sale with Harcourts agent Han Sun. They have a combined RV of $9.28m and a price tag of $8.8m. The properties were listed with Sun at the start of the month, but had previously been offered for sale in June - after the alleged May deal - with a separate agency.
The two neighbouring sections at 13 and 13A Alpers Avenue, which make up the bulk of the larger 1.5ha block, have been leased by Bayleys North Shore agents Toer Li and Ken Hu. OneRoof asked Li who took on the lease, but he declined to comment.
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Two other properties that were part of Zhang and Bao’s listing earlier this year, 10 and 12 Edgerley Avenue, remain off market.
Zhang told OneRoof that the properties he was marketing had not sold despite media reports. He said there had been little interest in the properties since he listed them on September 5. “There is nothing to report here. No story.”
Stuff Media reported on May 29 that it understood that the property had sold on May 22, but that details of the sale - including the buyer and the sale price - could not be revealed until settlement later in the year.
An agent familiar with the deals told OneRoof that the properties at 10 and 12 Edgerley Avenue and 13 and 13A Alpers Avenue were under contract in May. He said that both 74-76 Gillies Avenue, which has a heritage overlay, and 4-6 Edgerley Avenue had not been part of the deal. All the titles that make up the larger 1.5ha block are still owned by companies connected to Liu, so any deals done have yet to show up in records.
Property developer Donghua Liu is linked to two companies that own the Newmarket sites. Photo / Greg Bowker
OneRoof reached out to Roncon for comment, but had not heard back at the time of publication.
The 1.5ha block has a combined RV of $56.4m and was home to the Carlton Bowling Club for almost a century until it was sold to developer Roger Barry for $5m in 2001. It was sold again for $25m in 2010 to Roncon Pacific Hotel Management Holdings Limited.
Liu, who was at the heart of a political scandal that cost a minister his job, had plans to rejuvenate the site with a 600-unit, five-star hotel, but his project stalled, and the land was left undeveloped.
Images of the property from a previous listing show a stately home and a bare section behind. The property is on the opposite side of Gillies Avenue from the Auckland Badminton Centre and the motorway onramp.
The Arts & Crafts style home, formerly known as Hounslow, was first settled by botanist John Edgerley in 1843. The house was designed by Goldsbro’ of Fripp and Goldsbro’, who were the first architects to work in the Arts & Crafts style in New Zealand.
Harcourts’ Han Sun told OneRoof he didn’t know why Roncon had split the listing between two real estate companies. The listing said the vendors were willing to be flexible. “Rare opportunity - buy one or acquire both. Flexible purchase options: buy a single income-producing asset, or secure both properties for a larger development footprint and greater long-term upside.”
- 74 & 76 Gillies Avenue, Auckland, is for sale by negotiation; 4 & 6 Edgerley Avenue has an asking price of $8.8m
