The Northland island at the centre of over 13 years of headlines sold last year for $10.6 million, OneRoof can reveal.
Records show Motukawaiti, the only privately-owned island in the Cavalli group of islands near Matauri Bay, changed hands in April, but the price has only just appeared in public records.
The $10.6m sale is well short of the $30m and then $22m the owner was asking at various times, but the island, also known as Step Island, had been on and off the market for many years.
Real estate agent James Law, of James Law Realty, who brokered the deal, said that vendor Jun Zhang was the “unintentional owner” of the island so is pleased it finally sold.
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“He is pleased with the sale price. Of course, he would have loved it to be higher. He didn’t mean to own the island, he just went to court because someone owed him money,” Law told OneRoof. “It was never his intention to own the island.”
Motukawaiti had a remarkable run in the 13 years since it last sold.
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After he acquired the island, Zhang had been the subject of a five-year investigation by the Overseas Investment Office and the land had been subject to lobbying by the local Ngati Kura to be land-banked against future Treaty of Waitangi settlement. Over the years, the property had fallen into ruin, after squatters damaged buildings and equipment and back in 2014, Cyclone Luis demolished the island's jetty.
Law said the buyers, a New Zealand family who did not require OIO permission to buy the land, wanted to keep their purchase low-key. Earlier reports say the new owner is a trustee company and the only names linked to the sale were staff at law firm Dentons Kensington Swan.
The luxury island home featured a series of buildings connected by covered walkways, since trashed by vandals. Photo / Supplied
Island invaders smashed windows in one of the luxury chalets. Photo / David Fisher
“I don’t know what their plans are, they don’t want to stir up tension,” Law said.
The new owners had earlier told NZ Herald that they hoped to develop a friendship with Ngati Kura, planning to replant the island, eradicate pests and protect the marine ecology with the help of the iwi, making the island habitable again.
The ownership saga started in 2010 when a company called St Morris NZ Limited bought the island for $12m from the family owners. St Morris shareholder Wenning Han had used funds borrowed from overseas Chinese businessman Zhang, prompting an OIO investigation on whether the laws governing sales of sensitive land to overseas buyers may have been broken or not. Reports say that Zhang, who had become a New Zealand resident, took ownership in 2012 when Han was unable to repay the loan.
The investigation found evidence pointing to a possible breach of the Overseas Investment Act, but said at the time “there is not enough to prove this beyond reasonable doubt.”
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