It’s the luxury lodge that has to go. The owner of a landmark home overlooking Matauwhi Bay, in Russell, has dramatically dropped his asking price to $7.75 million in a last-ditch attempt to bring out the buyers.
The seven-bedroom property, which has hosted countless celebrities and business tycoons, has been on and off the market since 2019, but this time owner Bruce Munro is pressing to strike a deal, even if it means taking a $2m hit.
Bayleys agent Irene Bremner makes no bones about the size of the discount Munro has put on the table. Her listing on OneRoof declares: “Price reduced! Selling below the RV of $9,690,000 and fully furnished, this much-loved waterfront paradise must be sold immediately.”
Bremner told OneRoof: “The owner is based between New Zealand and Australia, and he’s downsizing his property portfolio.
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“It’s all about life and wanting to move on. Do you hang on and have one of the best houses in Russell, or finally come around to ‘yeah, this has got to go’?”
Speaking to OneRoof from Australia, Munro said he and his wife Diana wanted to spend more time with their grandchildren, who were based overseas.
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“That’s our motivation, to go and be with them. As we get older, we need to be with our kids,” he said.
Munro, who made his fortune in construction in Dubai, bought the lodge in 2008 for just over $7m during a whirlwind trip to New Zealand. “I saw the place on the internet. It was owned by an American guy. It had taken him 16 years to build it,” he said.
“It got its first code of compliance in October 2008. We added the driveway, the car park, the retaining walls, and all the bathrooms.”
The luxury home, which sits on a 3.86-hectare peninsula in the Bay of Islands, also features an indoor pool, a spa and sauna, a 750-bottle wine cellar, a commercial-grade kitchen, a helicopter landing area, and private mooring.
Munro told OneRoof he had been advised that building the house in today’s market would cost between $8m and $8.9m, while the land alone was worth $4.5m.
The luxury commercial kitchen was presided over by the owners' son, Ben Munro, a 2012 Master Chef competitor. Photo / Supplied
The house took the original owner 16 years to complete. Photo / Supplied
Before Covid struck, Munro ran the lodge as an accommodation business. Guests included international celebrities, yachting syndicates and rich-listers. Munro would not name names but Chelsea Winter, who appeared on MasterChef alongside Munro’s son, Ben, got married at the lodge.
He told OneRoof Ben would often do the cooking and that guests would take boating and helicopter trips to Kauri Cliffs for golfing or to Hole in the Rock for sightseeing.
“I bought a Boston Whaler [boat] from Dame Kiri te Kanawa and we would take it out to do fishing trips, lunches and viewings of private bays like Whangamumu Harbour. We probably did 1000 hours over summer. We had a lot of people come back and bring their friends,” he said.
The business is no longer operational, but Munro said he had been careful to keep up with consents and licences.
The property has its own mooring and access to a private beach. Photo / Supplied
Guest facilities include a pool room, indoor pool and spa and a 750-bottle wine cellar. Photo / Supplied
“So it’s in a position right now that if somebody walked in tomorrow, they could run it as a lodge,” he said, adding that in its day a tight full-time staff ran the lodge business, with extra staff on call for weddings and events.
Bremner said that with seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms, the home, which is being sold with its furnishings, could suit an extended family or a work-from-home set-up.
“You’ve got a certain market for this as it is in the town, up on the hill. We sold a similar place to a young couple from Hong Kong who have transformed it into a Cape Cod-type home. It’s really lovely.”
She said the Munros understood their pricing was sharp but felt they had had their time there. “They’ve had so much fun and memories, now it’s time to give it up to someone else,” she said, adding that interest had come from offshore buyers and locals.
- 6169B Russell Whakapara Road, in Russell, Northland, is for sale for $7.75m
