An Auckland mansion with an $11 million CV sold privately last month for $9m, OneRoof can reveal.
Records show ownership of the five-bedroom waterfront home on Riddell Road, in Glendowie, transferred from Yongming Wu to a private company based in Singapore.
The ownership of Aquamarine Lily is unclear. Public records list the company’s address as an eight-storey commercial tower on Keppel Road, in Singapore, but do not reveal the identity of the directors.
The $9m sale price suggests Wu did not make any money on the house. According to a report in the New Zealand Herald, he bought it in March 2020 for $9m from a Singapore-based businessman, Yifei Sheng.
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It does not appear Sheng made any money on his transaction either. He had bought the property in 2019 for $9m from Annie Shiu.
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Sheng, who is linked to billionaire Jack Ma’s Alibaba e-commerce website, has been behind some high-profile property transactions in recent years, including a $10m mansion in Remuera.
The Herald reported in 2021 that neither Sheng and Wu had apparently taken possession of the house on Riddell Road, and that as of early 2021, Annie Shiu was living there with her daughters and parents.
Annie Shiu, also known as Xiaoling Chen, was found guilty in June 2021 of defrauding property investors of $600,000 in connection with a multi-million-dollar Waikato land development.
She was sentenced to home detention, which the Herald reported she spent in Sheng’s $10m Remuera mansion. Sheng told the Herald at the time he had “no knowledge of her affairs”.
In July 2021, neighbours along Riddell Road told the Herald that Shiu had told them the property was being sold.
The property sits on 3751sqm overlooking the harbour and is several doors down from the mansion owned by rich-lister Graeme Hart.
The mansion on Riddell Road was formerly occupied by Annie Shiu. She was sentenced to nine months' home detention in 2021 for defrauding $600,000 from property investors. Photo / Supplied
According to the Herald, Shiu was charged with obtaining by deceit after telling buyers in a Pokeno property development scheme they needed to pay $100,000 in cash, on top of the purchase price, as commission fees to ensure the deals went through.
But a judge found she had illegally pocketed the money, saying her offending was motivated by greed.
“Your motivation, in effect was to defraud for your own benefit two persons whom you knew socially through the Chinese community in Auckland and that, of course, was not only unfair, it was morally and legally wrong,” Judge Peter Rollo said.
Australians and Singaporeans are exempt from the overseas buyer ban in place for existing residential properties in New Zealand.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Paul Neshausen, whose patch covers Glendowie, had noted an uptick in buyers from both Australia and Singapore.
Neshausen is travelling to Shanghai, in China, in December and plans to pitch luxurious listings - including one at 489 Riddell Road, in Glendowie - to buyers in the hope of wooing buyers over. The properties range in price from $6m to $18m.
Due to the foreign buyer ban, he would need to target Chinese buyers with either New Zealand citizenship or Singapore residency which he said was not uncommon.
Barfoot & Thompson agent Paul Neshausen: "Some of them want to live here as much as they can and then travel back to China and see family." Photo / Fiona Goodall
489 Riddell Road, in Auckland's Glendowie, is being pitched at wealthy buyers. Photo / Supplied
Neshausen said they look at buying in New Zealand for safety, security, the ease and transparency of doing business and green spaces for kids to play. Many wanted to be close to a Chinese community too.
"Some of them want to invest some of their funds in New Zealand and keep it here, and what better way to do it than real estate. Some of them want to live here as much as they can and then travel back to China and see family."
Neshausen said a large percentage of properties were in trusts, but he did not believe it was more prevalent than it had been. "In fact, some people are saying trusts are too expensive and they can't protect in the way they used to anymore anyway."
"If you are buying a house for your child who is unmarried and he's going to hook up with a partner, then you want your investment to be protected somewhat."
However, he said it was far less common for look-through companies to be used and even investment properties would be in a trust rather than a look-through company.
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