Secrecy surrounds the recent sale of the Wellywood mansion of Wellington rich-lister Doug Gold, with both the sale price and the buyer undisclosed.
The agents who brokered the deal for the five-bedroom house on a sprawling site on Cheviot Road, Lowry Bay – Bill Mathieson of Tommy’s Real Estate and Ray White’s Kate Foot – are bound by strict confidentiality clauses and could not speak to OneRoof.
The sale price will not be made public until the deal settles in early 2023, so OneRoof cannot confirm if the property set a new Wellington record, as was expected.
At the time it was listed in February, the mansion on the hill north of Eastbourne in Lower Hutt was expected to reach something with at least a $10 million in the sale price – way more than its a rateable value of $4.2m.
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The agents and owner were not sure how much the mansion might fetch because there was nothing to compare it with in the Wellington market, and properties in Lowry Bay are tightly held. But at today’s building costs, a luxury house of its 1162sqm size would cost somewhere in the vicinity of $9m to build. Records show the land was bought in 2001 for $1.15m.
The Mediterranean-style mansion, billed as “Hollywood in Wellywood”, reminded the owners of houses in France and Hollywood Hills. Photo / Supplied
OneRoof records of settled residential sales since 2015 show the top price in Lower Hutt was for a four-bedroom home on Waterloo Road in Hutt Central, which fetched $5.145m last year. That 2,227sqm property was pitched a development opportunity so isn’t a fair comparison.
Numbers were higher across greater Wellington, with this year's top price being the $5.95m paid in March for a modern four-bedroom house in Marine Parade, Seatoun. That is also subject to confidentiality agreements. The capital's highest sale price, paid in March 202, was $6.5m for a Central Terrace, Kelburn mansion that has been bulldozed to make way for 11 luxury townhouses.
Last year, two house sales reached $6m: in February a five-bedroom house in Hobson Street, Thorndon, which had been listed with an asking price of $7.95m, and a six-bedroom Victorian house, divided into flats, on Oriental Parade in December.
The Cheviot Road Mediterranean-style mansion, billed in the marketing as “Hollywood in Wellywood”, featured five bedrooms, six bathrooms, a tennis court and a pool on a 3,771sqm site. The property was built in the early 2000s by Doug Gold who has featured on the NBR Rich List as one of the country’s wealthiest people.
At the time he was selling the home, Gold would only say his property is at the top end of the market.
Gold co-founded More FM in Wellington in the 1990s which went on to become the More FM Network and before that he managed Wellington’s Radio Windy.
After the network was sold to CanWest Global Communications for $33m in 1997, Gold went on to set up international company NRS Media and entertained a variety of top media executives at the mansion.
The house comes with tennis courts, an outdoor pool and entertaining spaces that include a billiards room and 1860s bar. Photo / Supplied
Gold earlier told OneRoof he and wife Anemarie are sad to be leaving their big home which has given them so much pleasure, featuring both bush and panoramic sea views.
Rather than Hollywood, the build was inspired by France, Gold said.
“We lived in France for a few years and when we came back to New Zealand we decided we would build and we found the section, which was quite unique in terms of size.”
The site had a tennis court but otherwise was vacant land, unusual to find in the area.
Gold gave credit for the design to his wife who designed the Mediterranean/Provencal-type home for their lifestyle. They chose to devote space to entertaining, rather than more bedrooms, so the house includes a 14-seat cinema, an 1860s-style bar and a billiards room. The kitchen and full-sized scullery was much used by Wellington’s top chefs.
Doug Gold co-founded More FM in the early 1990s. Photo / Supplied.
There’s a formal lounge, a piano alcove and a formal dining area, too.
“A lot of it was built around creating good living and entertainment space rather than adding more bedrooms,” Gold said.
“We had a lot of people there and did quite a few functions and had various chefs, all of whom raved about the kitchen as being a perfect caterers’ dream if you like, because the scullery really is effectively a second kitchen.”
Outdoors the house has a huge covered outdoor balcony that can be closed with pulldown awnings, and there’s an outdoor fire and Anemarie’s much-loved manicured garden.
The separate guest apartment was commandeered by the Golds’ daughter when she was living at home.
The house included a 14-seat cinema. Photo / Supplied
Gold told OneRoof that the Mediterranean-style home is reminiscent of the sorts of homes you might find in Hollywood or Palm Springs.
He had expected buyers could include not just people who love to entertain, but also perhaps an embassy which could base staff in the separate apartment.
“Another option could possibly be an upmarket lodge. It's just hard to know.”
The couple are in their 70s now and have bought an apartment in the inner city but Gold says they will never be able to replace the house they built. The couple were currently overseas and not available for comment, the agents said.
The sale comes as Wellington region emerges from a tough winter with low listings and buyers holding back.
Nicki Cruickshank, principal of Tommy's said that while the sale was a big one, upper end sales are down across the region.
"We've gone from 10% of our sales being over $2m to about 2%," she said.
"There's so much bad news in the media, lots [of people] are holding off selling if they don't need to."
Ray White Wellington managing director Rob Garlick concurred, saying that both buyers and sellers "are sitting on their hands, thinking prices will go lower.
"Buyers have diminished, but we are noticing a good pipeline of stock coming forward in the next month, from $1m right through to the higher end," he said.
- Additional reporting Catherine Masters
