A once grand three-storey mansion with a troubled background has been sold, OneRoof can reveal.
The house on the corner of Ladies Mile and Remuera Road was snapped up in January for an undisclosed price in a deal brokered by Barfoot & Thompson agents Cindy Jiang and Carol Cong.
The property, on a 1370sqm site and boasts a tennis court and outdoor pool, has a 2021 CV of $7.4 million. It was advertised as needing a complete makeover.
Barfoot & Thompson could not comment on the sale, but the agents' listing highlighted the site's development potential. It is possible the new owners could demolish the existing home and replace it with an apartment block that would command some of the best views in Auckland city.
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The sale is due to settle later this year.
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The 1990s-built property has had a troubled history. In 2009, before the current vendors took ownership of the property, the New Zealand Herald reported that the mansion was at the centre of a string of mysterious deals - from gas drilling in Africa to building a palace in the Middle East to a cash-for-residency deal in Niue.
Inside the mansion in 2009. Liquidators Steven Khov, front, and Damien Grant go through the property. Photo / Chris Skelton
A report from the New Zealand Herald commenting on its sale in 1997. Photo / New Zealand Herald
The then owners owed more than $2.5m to two banks, the Herald reported.
The property was sold in 2010 after liquidation proceedings.
The property's chequered history goes back beyond the 1990s, before the three-story mansion was built. The address used to house one of Auckland's grand dames, Plumley House.
It was built in 1905 as a private residence, but later became a nursing home. It was renamed Seamer House when the Methodist Church of New Zealand bought it in 1954 and ran it as a hostel for Maori girls.
Film crew working on Aliens in the Attic at Plumley House, which used to be situated on the corner of Remuera Road and Ladies Mile. Photo / Janna Dixon
The house was sold again in 1987 and run as a boarding house and reportedly a brothel before it was eventually relocated to Coatesville to make way for development.
The house, in its Coatesville location, was used as the set of the Hollywood 2008 movie Aliens in the Attic, which starred a young Austin Butler, who is up for a best actor Oscar this week for his star role as Elvis Presley in the Baz Luhrmann movie Elvis.
But the much-reported plans to build up to seven units on the corner Remuera site in the 1990s never eventuated and the grand wooden mansion was replaced with just a single dwelling.
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