- A couple bought Heathcote Manor in Invercargill for $920,000, planning to make it a wedding venue.
- The property, which once hosted Queen Elizabeth II, will undergo significant renovations.
- The new owners, who collect Daimlers, aim to restore the manor to its former glory.
A “beautiful couple” have said “I do” to buying a landmark Southland homestead that once hosted Queen Elizabeth II on one of her trips to New Zealand.
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One Agency’s Sean Bellew told OneRoof that the new owners of Heathcote Manor, on Wellesley Avenue, in Invercargill, plan to turn the once-grand home into a wedding venue.
“I felt very, very, very, very comfortable selling it to them,” he said. “They were my Willy Wonka ticket, that was for sure.”
Bellew last sold the home just over two years ago to an international buyer for $950,000, but their circumstances changed, and the house was left vacant for over 18 months. The plan was for their son to live in the house while he studied medicine in New Zealand.
The new owners paid $920,000 for the property, Bellew said. “There was a wee bit of a loss for the vendor there,” the agent said, noting that the price reflected the cost of repairing the property.
The manor last changed hands in 2023, but the new owner never moved in, and the house has been vacant. Photo / Supplied
The grand staircase and the stained glass windows are reminders of its famous past. Photo / Supplied
The good news, Bellew said, was that the home would now be renovated. “She’s going to be saved. She’s going to be saved,” Bellew said. “A beautiful couple who collect Daimlers came along. They have already relocated a church onto their rural property, and they hold weddings.
“They’re very clever people, and they’ve done a lot of due diligence. They’re going to spend six figures on the property,” he said.
“Of all the people that I showed through the house, I can honestly say with my hand on my heart, these are the right people. It’s not going to be walls and beams; it’s going to be love and dreams. And they will really bring it back to its former glory. I’m just so excited. I can’t wait to stand on the front lawn in two years.”
Bellew’s listing for the property caught OneRoof’s attention when it appeared in February this year. “Save me from myself,” Bellew wrote. “I’ve had one of Southland’s most prestigious families live with me, the halls full of laughter, young ladies squealing with glee! Tennis and croquet on the front lawn.”
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“The Queen called by in 54, tea in the drawing room, putting the wait staff in a flap. I’ve survived a depression, a world war, and now I stand forlorn.”
The Queen and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, reportedly wanted to spend time with a renowned Invercargill racing family, the Hazletts, during their royal tour of the city.
Bellew told OneRoof in February that members of the Hazlett family once told him about the visit, and that it was too good a story to leave out of his marketing.
“The family contacted me and said that the Queen came for afternoon tea,” he said. “I’ve got to take people at face value. But when I last had it on the market and said the same thing, I was never challenged.
The Queen and Prince Philip in New Zealand in the mid-1970s. Their visit to Invercargill some 20 years prior also brought out the crowds. Photo / Getty Images
“And everybody remembers the Queen being here in 1954 because she stayed at the Grand Hotel.”
Bellew added: “The Hazletts are a very prominent family, and if you were going to say, ‘Well, who am I going to have a cup of tea with, in Invercargill in 1954?’, I’d imagine the Hazlett family would be at the top of the list. What else is she [the Queen] going to do? Sit in a hotel all afternoon?”
He said the Queen’s love of racehorses was well-known. “That would give them a very strong base for a conversation. So I’m 99% sure that it was the racing limb of the Hazlett family she visited.”
The five-bedroom property, known locally as Heathcote Manor, was certainly up to royal standards in its heyday. “When the Hazletts built the place, they didn’t spare any money. It had a servants’ wing, you had wait staff, that’s why it’s so big.
“It actually still has the waiters’ call bell system in the house, which has buttons in all the bedrooms. There’s a formal lounge, a drawing room, and a library. The balustrade railing to the upstairs was imported from England, I know for a fact. As was the big stained-glass window, which refers to the War of the Roses.”
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